


Extra! Extra! There's a Cutie on the Baseball Team

by Bugaboo253



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: It wasn't planned from the beginning but ive decided, Lol sorry if you don't like jackcrutchiedavey but it's my fave and it's getting put in here, M/M, a lot of the newsies are mentioned but I dont have the time to type it out, high school baseball au that maybe a few people wanted that i decided to write, its based on a tumblr post, katherine is mentioned, there are hints of sprace and specs/romeo if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-06 14:19:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 41,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10336505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bugaboo253/pseuds/Bugaboo253
Summary: Crutchie is a school reporter and is reporting on a big baseball game that could mean the playoffs. Jack Kelly is the star player though, and Crutchie didn't take into account how good he looked in baseball pants.





	1. Crutchie Isn't a Fan of Baseball but Jack Kelly is Cute.

**Author's Note:**

> First things first, I have to give credit to the tumblr post this idea originated from.  
> http://gay-newsboys.tumblr.com/post/158412525581/gay-newsboys-crutchie-reports-for-the-school  
> Read that post first, because it's great. This story follows that post pretty well, just a few minor differences and more detail to make it an actual story. I don't know how far I'll take it after the post ends but if people like it who knows. Also know that I mostly write all of this in large chunks late at night and I'm my own editor so there may be a few mistakes. Anyways here is the high school baseball au that was never explicitly asked for but here it is.

Crutchie was one of the head writers of his high school paper. He was convinced to join the school paper in freshman year by his good friend Katherine. He loved it ever since. Now in junior year, he and Katherine were head writers and loving it. 

Katherine normally did the sports stuff, because she knew Crutchie didn't know much about sports and didn't care for them much considering his crutch, but Katherine was already working on something else when someone was needed to cover the big baseball game later that week. It was a pretty big deal, considering the outcome would mean making it to the playoffs. Or not.

Mr. Denton, the high school paper supervisor, asked Crutchie to cover the game. He wanted a good writer for interviews with the players. Crutchie thought he was taking it too seriously, it was just high school baseball, but he agreed to do it. That's how he found himself in his current situation.

He got to the field half an hour before the actual game was meant to start. He was hoping to be able to introduce himself to the players before it started. The players were all, or at least mostly all, there and just hanging around. Some were doing some practice swings and others looked to be practicing pitches, but most just seemed to be hanging out.

Crutchie recognized a few of the guys, as he should, they go to his school. There was David “Davey” Jacobs, Tony “Racetrack” Higgins, Sean “Spot” Conlon, and a few others. One person that stood out to him most though was Jack Kelly, nickname Cowboy, though he didn't use it often. Crutchie had seen him around school of course, but he'd never seen him in a baseball uniform and he was just about floored. Crutchie kept what he could of his cool, and walked over. He's a reporter! He can't just let some cute guy get in the way of his writing!

Crutchie decided on talking to David first. He seemed the most approachable.

“Excuse me, David Jacobs? You're one of the team’s outfielders correct? Would you mind taking a moment for the school paper?” Crutchie easily fell into the reporter personality he had acquired through the past few years.

“Me? Shouldn't you be talking to Jack or something? He's the star player and all.” He looked more confused than anything. Not only had he never been approached for the school paper, it was always that girl Katherine that came to any games, he'd never seen this boy before.

“Well, it's a big game! I want to get a little bit from several people for the story! So, what are your thoughts? How are you feeling right now?” Crutchie got his notebook and pencil ready.

“Without wanting to jinx anything, I'm feeling pretty good right now. We've had a generally good season, so I wouldn't say it's an impossibility that we could win.” Davey was happy to actually be included in something about the team in the paper.

“Thanks, that was a great answer! I'll be sure to come back after the game! Oh, and I'm Charlie by the way, but everyone calls me Crutchie!” He then ran off to the other guys, feeling more motivated to write a story. Running to a group of boys, he ran into none other than Jack Kelly.

“Oh, I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going!” Crutchie immediately went to apologizing but Jack just waved his hands.

“Don't apologize, I was the one who wasn't watching. Besides, you're the one on the crutch, if anything I should be apologizing.” Jack smiled at him and Crutchie’s heart melted. He pulled himself together quickly. 

“I'm Charlie, but everyone calls me Crutchie! I'm here with the school paper, nice to meet you.” He held out a hand to Jack and he laughed before shaking it.

“We’re in highschool pal, you don't need to be so formal. You're with the paper huh? Here for an interview?” Jack smirked. He knew he was there for an interview, he was with the school paper. Half of the paper was interviews with the kids playing sports throughout the year.

“I'll, uh, be doing the interviews afterwards actually. I'm just going around talking to most everyone right now, maybe getting a few quotes for the story.” Crutchie was having a hard time trying not to stutter in front of him.

Jack thought this guy was cute, so he decided to flirt a little. Or maybe a lot. Yeah, a lot, that's just how he does.

“Well, I was about to start practicing at bat for a little before the game. Feel free to come over and watch.” Crutchie thought he winked at him, but he wasn't sure. Either way he followed in the direction Jack was going. He went behind the backstop as Jack went in front with his bat. Racetrack was pitching for him, and Spot was the catcher. Before the first pitch was thrown, Jack turned to where Crutchie was standing and shot him some finger guns. 

Needless to say, Crutchie wasn't focusing on the actual pitching, hitting, and catching. He was too busy drooling over Jack Kelly. When they were done practicing, Jack motioned for Crutchie to follow him into the dugout.

“So, Crutchie the reporter, have any questions before the game?” Jack sat on a bench and took a drink from his water bottle.

“Oh, yes! What are your thoughts? How are you feeling?” Crutchie, if only for a moment, forgot about Jack Kelly and how cute he was when reminded of the story.

“My thoughts? Well, I think we'll do pretty well in this game. Just because it's a big game won't change anything. We've been doing well so far, so it's fair to say we'll do well here too. Especially with you here cheering me on.” Jack smirked at the flush creeping up Crutchie’s cheeks. He was almost too flustered to write down what he said, obviously not including his last statement.

“Uh, Thanks! Good answer! Davey said something similar, so it's good to see the team feeling the same way towards this game! A-Anyways, gotta run and try and talk to a few other guys before the game.” Crutchie ran off before Jack could say anymore, not wanting to get more flustered than he already was. The next people he saw himself walking towards was Race and Spot, talking to each other on a bench.

“Excuse me, would you two mind taking a moment for the school paper?” Crutchie was slightly intimidated by the two of them, but mostly Spot. He tried to stay confident though.

“Yeah okay, we don't normally get asked anything for the paper so I'm down.” Race shrugged and turned towards Crutchie. Spot laughed.

“Speak for yourself Race, I'm always in the paper. People love me!” Spot spread his arms out and Race plugged his nose and shoved him off the bench.

“Oh, shut up. And keep your arms down, you smell worse than the Delancey’s!” Race waved a hand in front of his nose and laughed. “The Delancey’s” referred to the Delancey brothers on the rival school’s baseball team. They weren't bad guys, but they were competitive, just like Jack Kelly and his team. Crutchie made a note in his notebook to mention the friendliness and bonding between all the members of the team.

“Well anyways, what was it you wanted to ask us?” Spot asked as he stood up from being knocked on the ground and sat back on the bench next to Race.

“I wanted to ask what your thoughts are? How you're feeling about this game?” Crutchie was pretty happy. He'd never had this many people so willing to answer questions for the paper.

“Well, I'm definitely not getting my hopes up, but that's not because I don't believe in the team. It's just never a good idea to get your hopes up before a game. It can mess up your mojo. Aside from that, I do believe in the team, and I think we can do pretty well this game.” Spot was the first to answer, and Crutchie was surprised by his response.

“Well golly Spot, I had no idea you were so well-spoken!” Race shoved him again, but this time with less force and in more of a teasing manner.

“Shut up and answer the question.” Spot laughed and punched his shoulder. Crutchie really admired their friendship. They sounded like really good friends.

“Okay, okay! Well I know the team we’re going against today is good. I think we can be better though. It's still hard to say, we never know how the game will go until things start going. All in all, I feel like we’ll do alright. Win or lose, we’ll be proud.” Crutchie was once again surprised, not expecting such a great answer from Race.

“Who’s the well-spoken one now?” Spot teased Race and he rolled his eyes.

“I will actually punch you in the gut.” Was Race’s response, which caused Spot to laugh.

“Well, I gotta head out, the game should be starting soon anyways. I'll be sure to come and talk to you guys again after the game. See ya!” Crutchie tucked his notebook under his arm and was ready to walk away.

“Wait, what's your name Mr. Reporter?” Race called after him as he was walking away.

“Oh, right! I'm Charlie, but everyone calls me Crutchie! Bye now!” Then Crutchie went to find a good seat to watch the game and take notes for his story.


	2. It's Time For the Game and Jack is a Huge Flirt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's game time! The game has now begun, but that won't stop Jack from being an obnoxious flirt.

Crutchie was cold. It looked like it was close to raining and the wind was blowing. He only brought a thin jacket too, so he was screwed for the rest of the game. Why did anyone play sports in the cold? It seemed horrible. He wasn't having a terrible time though, the game was entertaining enough. Sure, it was slow a lot, but when it picked up it was exciting. It wasn't a hard sport to follow along with, thankfully, so Crutchie was able to write some good things down to include in the story. Most of what he wrote was when they made a nice catch or hit the ball pretty far. He made sure to write about the other team too, not wanting to be biased. Crutchie wrote a lot about how they were pretty okay with catching, but they seemed to really shine during batting. This was okay though, even if they hit the ball out really far, because Davey, Specs, and Romeo were great outfielders. Crutchie wrote some notes about how good Race was at pitching, especially with Spot as catcher. He made a side note from that note to connect that back to the friendliness and bonding he wrote about before. During one of the switches of the teams, Crutchie heard a voice close to his side.

“Hey, you writing about how good we are?” Crutchie jumped, not having seen anyway walk up to him. He looked over and saw Jack and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don't go sneaking up on people like that! You just about gave me a heart attack.” Crutchie placed a hand to his heart. Jack just chuckled.

“Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Anyway, the story, you writing about how good we are?” Jack raised his eyebrows and smiled that smile again. Crutchie felt that if he kept doing that he'd melt into a puddle before the end of the game for sure.

“Well you're actually a little behind right now, Kelly, but win the game and I'll barely need to write anything to show how good you are.” Crutchie smirked at Jack and he smiled even wider. He punched Crutchie lightly in the arm.

“Now _that's_ a reporter answer! I think I might like you more than that girl Katherine that always comes around. See ya Crutchie!” Then Jack was off again because he needed to bat. Crutchie laughed, Jack made it seem like he barely knew Katherine. Too bad for him, Crutchie knew all about their ‘history’ if you could call it that. Still, after that, Crutchie was a little more into the game.

After the seventh inning, the team looked a little down. They were still behind, not a lot, but they'd been behind for a while now not able to catch up. They weren't feeling the greatest about the game anymore. Then Crutchie heard Jack and Davey start a sort of pep talk. It was mostly Davey saying it, and then Jack shouting it with more passion. Crutchie could only really hear Jack from where he was at though.

“You guys, we may be behind, but we have two more innings! If we don't give up now, we can come back stronger than ever and blow them out of the water! They bat next, yeah? Race, you're pitching, Spot you're the catcher. You guys have the best teamwork I've ever seen. Strike them out. Davey, Specs, and Romeo. They're good batters, they hit far, but you guys can run like hell. You can catch what they don't strike. I know we can do this fellas! Come on!” All the guys cheered at Jack's speech and went out on the field looking much better than before. Crutchie tried writing down all he could from the speech, hoping to pull a few quotes from it. Crutchie was really hoping they would win now.

It was the bottom of the ninth, the team was still down by two and they were batting. Jack was up to bat, and there was one guy on second base, but that would mean he needed a home run. Jack was good, and everyone knew that, but Jack had only hit one home run this season. Almost every guy on the team could be seen doing something of an anxious tick, chewing their nails, pulling their hair, or just plain fidgeting. Crutchie was biting on the end of his pencil. He's already gotten into it a lot more since the beginning of the game and he wanted to see them win. He found himself standing up and shouting.

“Come on Jacky! I know you can do it!” Jack turned towards Crutchie’s seat and smiled when they made eye contact. Crutchie’s heart probably stopped beating at that moment. He knew he could do it! Of course he could, he was Jack Kelly!

Then he got a strike. Then another one, and then a ball. Crutchie was getting really nervous, he was surprised his pencil didn't snap in his mouth. He stands up to shout again.

“Come on Kelly! You got this!” Jack turns again and winks, and this time Crutchie is sure it's a wink. He also mouths something to Crutchie, but Crutchie wasn't able to read his lips from the distance. Jack then sets a really determined look on his face and squints his eyes. Crutchie thinks it's very cute, but he needed to focus on the game. The ball comes whirling towards Jack, and he hits it. It goes flying, so far Crutchie doesn't even know where it landed. Jack starts making his way around the bases, not even bothering to run, and brings the score to a tie. Crutchie is practically jumping up and down, and Jack winks at him again as he crosses home base. 

The game goes into extra innings then and the team seemed to kick it into gear. After Jack hit that home run, it seemed everyone was ready to win the game, and they weren't going to go out without a fight. It's like everyone's performance levels skyrocketed, because they destroyed the other team. When the game was over, they won and everyone was celebrating. Crutchie went over to all of the boys and celebrated with them. Jack saw him and began running over, his hat fell off in the process so he picked it up and put it back on backwards. Crutchie found that weirdly attractive and basically died on the spot.

“Hey! We won!” Jack yelled when he reached Crutchie.

“You did! You won! Congrats!” Crutchie was probably just as excited as the team was. Maybe not. but he was still so proud of them, even if only really having talked to any of them that day.

“So, do you want to interview the amazing Jack Kelly? I sure know that I would be delighted to be interviewed by the amazing and handsome reporter, Crutchie.” Jack smiled at him and Crutchie was in love. He knew his face was growing red because he could feel the heat in his cheeks and he giggled.

“Oh, uh, yes. I, uh. So how are you feeling now? Before the uh, before the game you mentioned that you thought you'd do well. Now having, uh, won, how do you feel?” Crutchie was stuttering like crazy. He wasn't used to people flirting with him, especially not cute guys like Jack Kelly.

“Well, as I recall I also mentioned that we'd do well with you cheering me on, and look what happened. Maybe you're my lucky charm.” Jack stepped closer to Crutchie and he stepped away.

“Uh, Jack I can't, I can't use that in the paper.” Crutchie stammered out. Jack sighed. He knew he needed to say something that would actually work for the paper.

“Okay, well like I said, we'd been doing well so far this season, so I figured we'd do well here too. We won the game and it's amazingly gratifying, and I couldn't be prouder of my team. We were in a tough spot, but we really pulled through.” A few players came over to Jack, wanting him to join back in with the group, but he just shooed them away.

“Very well said! Thank you Jack. Now another question. This team seems to be really bonded together. Everyone is so friendly around each other. I'm assuming you all are friends outside of practices and games, so were you all friends before baseball or did you meet through baseball?” Crutchie looked up at Jack and turned his head a little to the side, not much unlike a dog. Jack thought it was absolutely adorable.

“You're real cute, you know that?” Jack smiled down at him. Crutchie giggled, not knowing how to take the compliment, and Jack laughed. The giggle was even more adorable though, and he needed to make him do it more.

“I-I mean I guess so, I don't know.” Crutchie was stuttering again, never one to be good at accepting compliments.

“So why the crutch? Is it because you hurt your leg falling for me?” Jack smiled when Crutchie did that giggle again. Jack was loving it.

“Hey Jack! We’re gonna be heading for pizza, you coming or what?” Called another guy from the team. Crutchie believed it was Elmer. Jack groaned, but then got an idea.

“Okay, Mr. Reporter. Now I have a question for you.” Crutchie looked surprised and confused.

“For me? Okay, shoot.” Crutchie closed his notebook, having been ignoring it since Jack started flirting with him anyway.

“Why don't you come with the team for pizza? It'll give you a chance to talk with more of the team and maybe get to know them better.” Jack really just wanted to talk to him some more, maybe get his number, but he poised it in a way that might have appealed to him more. He did want to interview other guys from the team after all.

“Um, alright. I guess I'll come.” Crutchie held his notebook to his chest and followed Jack and the rest of the team off the field.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the second chapter! I already have great ideas for where I'll want this to go. I also don't think I'll have a set update schedule. The best I can say is probably one update a week, but there won't be a set day that I'll update. Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or anything comments are always nice or you can send me asks on my tumblr! It's bentylershook .


	3. Pizza and Jukebox Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is alternatively titled: Everyone Here is a Meme

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long by the way! I'll be posting chapter four within the next few days to make up for it! I hope you enjoy this chapter though! Thanks for reading!

Crutchie rode with all of the guys in the big van they almost all rode in normally. It was Race’s van, so he was driving. Spot was in the passenger seat, Davey, Specs, and Romeo were in the middle seats, and Jack and Crutchie were in the back alone. All of the guys’ baseball gear was in the far back behind Jack and Crutchie’s seats. The other guys on the team were riding in Elmer’s car behind them. Mush, Kid Blink, and Albert were there. Thinking about it now, they had some pretty odd nicknames. Crutchie chose not to say anything, his nickname was Crutchie after all. He didn't exactly know where they were going, just that they were going to get pizza. Be found out quickly that they were going to a local pizza place. Ye Olde Pizza is what it was called. They entered, ordered, then found a table big enough to seat them all. After they all sat and got their seats situated, Race got up and ran to the jukebox against the back wall. It was like an electronic jukebox, connected to some sort of music playing program most likely. Spot stood up.

“Race if you play that song one more time I'll ban you from this place myself.” Spot yelled at him and he turned, his back against the machine.

“No you won't! We come here too often for that.” Race stuck out his tongue and started turning back around.

“I'll break our snap streak.” That caused Race to freeze and spin around so fast.

“Break our streak and I'll rip your dick off, Conlon.” Race’s stare was ice cold and everyone went silent. Spot put his arms up in surrender before sitting back down. Race turned back to the machine again and soon the song “What's New Pussycat” started playing over the speakers. Some of the gang, including Spot, groaned. Most of the group though, were singing along. Jack was the loudest.

“What's new pussycat? WOAH WOAH OH WOAH WOAH!” Jack yelled the loudest over everyone and Crutchie couldn't help but laugh. Everyone else in the pizza place was laughing too. Crutchie assumed that they came here and did this often enough, because the workers didn't even seem to care. When the song was over, all of the team was cracking up. Crutchie was actually the next one to stand up and pick a song. The song Crutchie happened to pick was “It's Not Unusual” and the whole team cracked up again.

“Hey, you're alright! What's your name anyway?” Specs at the other end of the table acknowledged Crutchie. Crutchie hadn't even realized he hadn't introduced himself to all of them.

“Oh! I'm Charlie, I'm a reporter for the school paper. Most people call me Crutchie though.” Everyone at the table all said hi to Crutchie in some way or another. He just smiled.

“Well it looks like you'll fit right in here Crutchie. You already got a nickname and if Jack likes you, you must be alright.” Specs spoke again, winking at Crutchie when mentioning Jack causing him to flush. After the song finished, Romeo shot out of his seat before anyone else could.

“Aw, Romeo! You're just gonna play a song from some musical that none of us know!” Elmer whined after him. Crutchie perked up at the mention of musicals. Musicals were his forte. If he wasn't in the school production he was reporting on it. He was often reporting it, his constant need for a crutch sort of got in the way of being in any productions. He'd seen Romeo in a few actually, now that he thought about it. When the song started Crutchie all but gasped.

“I love this song!” Crutchie said and his eyes lit up so bright. Jack thought it was cute.

“You know this musical?” Romeo asked him while walking back to his seat. Food was arriving right at that time too.

“Of course! It's a classic.” Crutchie stated while grabbing a few slices of pizza.

“Right? It's so good,” then he turned and leaned into Specs, “I definitely like this guy.” That made Specs laugh. Romeo didn't have anyone within the team to share his love for musicals with besides Specs who only knew a few, so he liked the idea of having Crutchie to talk to about them. Crutchie started quietly singing along. The song was over soon and Romeo went to put on another one.

“Hey Romeo, play Candy Store next?” Crutchie called and Romeo whirled around with a smile on his face.

“Already on it.” The song then started and Romeo started singing it while walking back to his seat, causing the guys to laugh.

After a while, the pizza was gone, and everyone was just hanging around and talking.

“So, Crutchie, how long have you been working for the school paper? I don't think I've ever seen you report any sports games before today.” Jack seemed to be asking more questions than Crutchie was, but he was glad to answer them.

“I've been working on the paper since freshman year actually. My friend Katherine is the one who normally covers the sports games though, I've never been big on sports.” Crutchie shrugged.

“Really? You looked pretty interested during the game. Or maybe that was just when I was playing.” Jack was flirting as much as humanly possible it seemed. This Crutchie was cute, and he wanted to at least get his number before the day was over. Crutchie was just in a constant state of flustered since he started talking with Jack, and his last statement didn't change that.

“It was an exciting game! Plus, you guys started doing well, I can't cheer for my own school’s team?” He was, however, getting better at not stuttering while flustered. He was getting some good practice today. Jack inwardly groaned. He was obviously succeeding in flirting with Crutchie, but he was so stubborn.

“Hey fellas! Time to go, I'm your ride and I need the van home in like 30 minutes! Let's go!” Race called and all the boys who rode in the van started getting up. They had paid when they ordered so there was nothing much to worry about. Everyone piled back into the seats they were in before and they were off.

“Yo Crutchie, where am I dropping you off?” Race asked from the driver’s seat.

“Oh, just drop me back off at the school, my car’s still in the lot.” Crutchie said and waited. The van was slowly emptied. Romeo and Specs got out at the same place, but Davey got out on his own. Race stopped at the school and both Crutchie and Jack got out.

“You have a car waiting in the lot too? I thought you rode with Race to school everyday?” Race had already driven off, so he couldn't get back in the van if he wanted to anyway.

“Oh, he does. I just wanted to spend a little more time with you.” Jack lightly shoved him with his arm and Crutchie laughed.

“Alright. Does that mean I'm dropping you off at your house then? You could have asked first, gas costs money you know.” Crutchie unlocked the door to his car and unlocked the rest of the car so Jack could get in too. Jack plopped his bag of gear under his feet.

“Or you could take me back to your place.” Jack suggested, wiggling his eyebrows. Crutchie just laughed again.

“Um, well uh. I mean, uh, um.” Crutchie couldn't get any words out. He was flustered and stuttering once again and he mentally scolded himself for it.

“I was kidding Crutchie! I'll tell you how to get to my house.” Crutchie sighed of relief. He started the car and drove out of the parking lot. Jack looked at Crutchie while his eyes were on the road. He was studying his features.

“You know, even if I'm watching the road, I can still see you staring.” It was Jack's turn to blush and stutter and Crutchie laughed.

“It's hard not to stare at someone so beautiful.” Jack brought his flirty nature back and fluttered his eyelashes at him dramatically.

“Yeah okay.” Crutchie rolled his, but he was still going a little pink due to the compliment.

“This is it.” Jack stated as they reached his house. Crutchie stopped the car and Jack got out. Crutchie rolled the window down.

“Alright Jack. See ya around.” Crutchie was starting to drive away but Jack called for him to wait.

“Running away before I can get your number?” Jack asked, leaning forward against the car.

“I'm driving, actually, and who said I would give you my number anyway?” Crutchie bit his lip and did a sort of half-smile. 

“Aw, c’mon Crutch!” Jack stuck out his bottom lip in a pout and Crutchie knew there was no way he could say not to that.

“Fine, I'll give you my number.” Jack did a little victory pose and Crutchie laughed while reciting his number. He then drove away with a smile on his face.

Crutchie got home that night, ate dinner alone like normal, took a shower, and went to bed, all with that same smile on his face the whole time. Crutchie was generally a smiley person, but he felt like this smile was different. That smile grew when he got a text from a Mr. Jack Kelly before heading to bed.

_Unknown Number _  
Hey, it's Jack. Goodnight.__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't think it was worth the wait to be honest, but chapter four is coming soon and it's a longer one I promise! Thanks for reading, comments are always cool! Talk to me about the fic on my tumblr too if you want! It's bentylershook !!
> 
> (P.S. I had to make at least one reference to another musical in here somewhere. This was just a not-so-subtle reference.)


	4. More Pizza and Shenanigans, Less Jukeboxes Invloved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys all hang out and have pizza again. This time in a new location.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm like, not 100% on this chapter but I'm posting it anyway because I said I would. Hope you like it anyway. Yell at me in the comments if it's as bad as I think it is! Or just yell at me in the comments anyway I guess.

Crutchie woke up the next day with a new text from Jack. It made him smile. He almost never had texts when he first woke up. Only on few occasions if Katherine was excited about a story she was writing for the paper and happened to be working on it in the morning did he have a text to wake up to. It made his heart swell.

_Jackie-boy_  
Hey, you should come over today! A few of the guys will be over and we’re all hanging out. 

There was another text that was sent right after that. 

_Jackie-boy_  
Oh, good morning btw :)

It made Crutchie feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that Jack thought about him and invited him. He shot back a quick text saying he'd come, also asking when to head over. Jack's text didn't specify and he wanted to be sure. Crutchie never wanted to be too early, it made him anxious. He got out of bed and got in the shower before checking his phone again. The next time he checked his phone was about thirty minutes after he sent the text and he saw that Jack had responded within five minutes of his text. Oops. 

_Jackie-boy_  
Most of the guys are already here, head over whenever! 

Crutchie got dressed and headed out. He remembered where Jack lived thankfully. It was probably thanks to the fact that he drove past it to school everyday and it really wasn't far from his own house. He parked by the street, taking notice of Race’s van already parked. He walked up to the door, which was quickly answered by Mush. 

“Yo Jack! Crutch is here!” Mush yelled back into the house while letting Crutchie walk in. It wasn't a bad place. It was a single story, and it looked like the house was being overtaken by most of the baseball team. Everyone that Crutchie could see, which he hoped was all of them, was in what he assumed to be the lounge area. He saw Race and Spot, which was obvious. He also saw Specs, Romeo, and David. They seemed to always be together. Crutchie assumed it was some sort of bond they created as collective outfielders. Or maybe they were just good friends that hung out a lot and it had nothing to do with baseball. Mush was obviously there too, and of course Jack. They were all just sitting around and talking, but David and Specs were also playing some video game on the TV. Jack stood up at Mush’s call and greeted Crutchie. 

“Crutch! Come sit down, we’re kind of just chilling right now.” He led Crutchie to the couch where he had been sitting prior and motioned for him to sit in the spot next to his. Spot and Race were on the other side of the large couch and Race was sitting in Spot’s lap. Race was laughing, and Spot looked annoyed, so the normal. After watching the TV screen for a little Crutchie could figure out that the video game being played was Portal. David was getting annoyed with Specs because he was messing around with the portals while David was actually trying to play the game and solve the puzzles. Crutchie hadn't brought his journal and he was regretting it. It wasn't that he was bored, he just liked being able to write whenever or doodle if he wanted to. It gave him something to do with his hands. 

After a little while of just sitting around and not really doing anything, there was a knock on the door and then a yell. 

“You guys better get off your asses and open the door for me!” Was heard through the door. Mush got up and opened the door. 

“Pizza’s here!” He yelled and then Crutchie heard an “ow!” come from him afterwards. 

“Blink is here too, you jackass.” Crutchie heard Blink yell from the kitchen. Everyone jumped off the couch pretty quickly and ran into the kitchen. Crutchie was a little slower, not really getting the rush. 

“Didn't we all just have pizza yesterday?” He asked as he made to the back of group surrounding Blink with the pizza. 

“So? Pizza is always great.” Spot said with a shrug. Crutchie just nodded. He didn't disagree, pizza was always good. 

“Let's move to the basement now yeah?” Jack called and there was a mumbling of agreements from everyone before they were led to a door. Jack opened it to reveal stairs and everyone clamored down. After getting down there, Crutchie realized this was Jack's bedroom. It looked really nice. He had a large bed in the corner, a couch that sat in front of a table and a decent size TV, multiple bean bag chairs, and it was well kept. It just looked like any other room in the house, it didn't even look like a basement aside from some visible piping on the farthest wall. 

After getting down, Blink put the stack of pizza boxes on the table in front of the couch. Everyone grabbed their slices and claimed a seat. Spot and Race took up the entire couch, Race laid down and Spot laid on top of him. Race was holding his pizza away from him over the table, while Spot’s was set on the table. Race was pounding at Spot’s back, trying to get him off. David found a seat on his lonesome in a bean bag chair next to the couch. Specs and Romeo sat next to each other in bean bag chairs on the opposite side of the couch. Good to know the three of them could actually be seen not right next to each other at all times. Mush and Blink were sitting on the separate arms of the couch, laughing at Spot and Race. Jack went and jumped onto his bed. After getting his pizza, Crutchie was going to sit on the floor next to David, seeing as he was the only one really sitting alone, but Jack called him over to sit on the bed with him. It seemed that now that everyone has food, the conversation had picked up again. 

“So this guy was yelling at Mush and me,” Blink was in the middle of telling a crazy story, “so we booked it out of there. We tried going back after that and we were kicked out. We'd been banned from the store apparently. All for just a little bit of messing around.” Everyone was laughing at the story and Crutchie was enjoying himself. A few of the guys were wiping away tears. 

“A little bit of messing around? You were jumping on all of the beds in dirty shoes! You also can't convince me you didn't hide in the closets before popping out at random shoppers announcing that you're gay, because that definitely happened.” Spot said when he was done laughing. Him and Race finally sorted out their seating on the couch, Spot on one end and Race leaning on his shoulder. There was an extra spot on the couch after that so David took it. 

“Okay, I guess it was more than a little bit of messing around. We didn't pop out of the closets, but we should have! That would have been amazing!” Blink was laughing, Mush was laughing, everyone was laughing and having a good time. 

After a few more stories including Spot and Race running from a cop when they were on an off-limits playground after midnight during the summer, the many stories of odd shenanigans Crutchie and Kath got into when working on a story for the paper, and even David talking about the time he talked his way out of detention after he accidentally hit a teacher in the head with a baseball, people started heading out. 

“That's why I've always called you the Walking Mouth.” Spot had said after David’s story was over, causing everyone to laugh some more. Crutchie made a mental note on his nickname. He seemed to be more like Jack with his nickname though, not using it often. 

The first person that had to leave was Mush. Blink, being his ride, left with him. The conversation hardly died after that though. Race and Spot had plenty of stories. About an hour after Mush and Blink left though, Race mentioned that he had to be home soon. Being everyone else’s ride, again, they had to leave with him. 

“Well, I guess I better be heading out too then. See ya Jack!” Crutchie got up getting ready to leave just as the other boys, but Jack stopped him. 

“You can stay a little longer, you know.” It was only the second time Crutchie had ever seen Jack look embarrassed? Flustered? He wasn't entirely sure. The expression was hard to read, it was barely there. He found it adorable either way. A whistle came from the couch. It was Race. 

“Go get ‘em Cowboy!” Spot shouted before he and Race went up the stairs followed by the other guys laughing their asses off. That caused Jack’s face to heat up a little more, but so did Crutchie’s. After everyone was gone, Jack let out a sigh and fell onto his back on his bed. 

“So Crutchie, I realized you weren't talking much, you alright?” Jack pushed himself up on his elbows and looked at Crutchie, who had sat back down on the bed at that point. 

“I feel like I talked plenty, thank you very much.” Crutchie crossed his arms and furrowed his eyebrows. Jack laughed. 

“Yeah, when you were talking about you and that girl Katherine at the paper. You didn’t talk much outside of that though.” Jack raised his eyebrows in a challenging sort of motion. Crutchie huffed. 

“I just don't talk to people much is all. Never really been one to talk to people.” Crutchie shrugged. It was true, he didn't talk to people much. 

“You're a school reporter though. How does that work?” Crutchie knew he would ask that question. Katherine had asked the same thing when he had told her, and everyone else for that matter. 

“It's different when I'm working for the paper. I have an objective to reach at the end of the conversation and I know everything I need to say. It also makes it easier when I’m doing something I love doing.” Crutchie had that speech memorized at that point, with how many people had asked him about it. Mostly the other kids when they joined the newspaper or Mr. Denton, constantly asking him because he still didn't understand it. 

“You almost sound like David did when we first met. Always needed to be calculated and precise. He's mellowed out since then though. Not every conversation needs to be perfect Crutch, just go with the flow of a conversation and just say whatever is on your mind.” Jack chuckled a little. Crutchie always seemed to be a little on edge. He hid it well with his constant smiling and non-stop working, but Jack noticed the tension he had. He did have a few classes with Crutchie, that he knew, and he also knew that he never really remembered seeing him talk to many people before. He saw him with a large group at lunch though, so he knew he had friends. Jack suddenly realized how much he had been studying Crutchie before ever meeting or talking to him. The boy was cute, what could he say? 

“You don't understand how much I cannot do that.” Crutchie said and chuckled as well. Jack was staring at him weirdly, but not in a bad way. Crutchie just couldn't place the expression on his face. He started blushing, he wasn't used to being stared at and wasn't sure if he liked it. 

“Come on, just have a chill conversation with me. Just go with the flow and talk.” Jack sat up and crossed his legs, Crutchie did the same. Jack motioned for Crutchie to begin and he sighed. 

“That's the problem! I don't even know where to begin!” Crutchie groaned and flopped down onto his side. Jack laughed and flopped on his side too so he was still looking at Crutchie’s face. 

“Fine, then I'll start with a question and you can answer and we'll follow the flow of the conversation from there. So, what made you want to join the school paper?” Jack wanted to start somewhere easy to start the conversation. 

“Oh, well I was only acquainted with Katherine at the time. Beginning of freshman year. We knew of each other more than we actually knew each other. We were in the same english class and we had been paired for a writing project. After we finished, she had asked if I had ever considered the school newspaper. She had said that I was a good writer and the newspaper could always use more writers. After that I decided to join and I've been in it ever since.” Crutchie was smiling big and wide again and that made Jack smile. 

“Is there always things to write about in the paper then? I would assume things get slow sometimes, yeah?” Jack just wanted to keep Crutchie talking and smiling. He could stare at his smile for hours. God he was falling for this boy fast. He was Heart Eyes Kelly for a reason. 

“Oh yeah, there are plenty of times when the paper is filled with boring nonsense like stuff the school gives us for when we don't have anything. Mostly a run down of the next week on the school calendar to remind anyone with anything coming up, anti-drug messages, anti-texting and driving messages, things like that. We try to make it more interesting though. Principle Pulitzer doesn't read the paper, and Mr. Denton doesn't care what we put in it, so why not? We make it fun. The most fun is obviously when we have actual stories to write though.” The conversation went on for a while just like that. Mostly Jack asking questions and Crutchie answering. Sometimes something Crutchie said would remind Jack of something so he'd talk about it, then Crutchie would ask questions. The topics were all over the place. The newspaper, the baseball team, the theater. Crutchie found them to be talking about space at one point and didn't even know how they got to that topic. After a little while, they drifted into a comfortable silence. It was nice for a while, just in each other’s presence. Crutchie spoke up. 

“You're surprisingly easy to talk to Jack Kelly.” Crutchie spoke just above a whisper. They were both on their backs now, staring at the ceiling. 

“So I've been told. I've practically been made the group therapist, everyone comes to me when they need to talk.” Jack was just as quiet as Crutchie had been. Crutchie turned onto his side once more to look at Jack. Jack did the same. 

“You're different from what I expected.” Crutchie stated, still as quiet as before. His face was mostly calm, but there was a tone of wonder to his facial features that Jack noticed. He scooted closer. 

“Well, what did you expect?” He asked. His eyebrows were slightly turned up, showing interest in what Crutchie would say next. They were pretty close now. Close enough that Crutchie could see little gold flecks in Jack's eyes but far enough to see his whole face. 

“Well, I,” They both started leaning in slowly and Crutchie thought he was dreaming for a moment. He was going to kiss Jack Kelly. 

“Jack! I'm home!” Yelled a voice from upstairs, so loud compared to the quiet comfort of their previous conversation that Crutchie swore he jumped five feet into the air. Crutchie could hear Jack sigh. 

“I'm in my room Aunt Medda!” Jack called back and then there were some footsteps before they could hear the door to the basement opening and steps going down the stairs. The woman who appeared, Crutchie assumed to be Medda. 

“Well, Jack Kelly you didn't tell me you had company over still! I was wondering who’s car was parked outside. I don't believe I've met this one yet. I am Medda Larkin, pleased to meet you. Call me Aunt Medda, all of Jack’s friends do!” She walked over quickly and held her hand out to Crutchie, who shook it. She seemed like a very lively woman and Crutchie already liked her. 

“I'm Crutchie! Well, Charlie, but I prefer Crutchie.” He gave her a big smile. He was always one to try and make the best first impressions. 

“Oh don't worry, I'm used to all the odd nicknames of Jack's friends. Well I'll let you two get back to doing… whatever it was you were doing!” Medda winked at Jack before walking out causing him to groan when she was gone. 

“She's so embarrassing. I'm sorry. That's my aunt, she's my legal guardian. Thankfully she's one of the cooler aunts, but she still embarrasses me every chance she gets.” Jack covered his face with his hands, his face undoubtedly red underneath. 

“I thought she was lovely! She was very nice. I don't think she was embarrassing at all.” Crutchie was being truthful, but also trying to make Jack feel better. 

“Oh, just you wait.” Was all Jack said but he finally took his hands away from his face, which was still a little pink. He was upset that the moment was ruined and he didn't know how to bring it back. Crutchie just laughed at his misfortune before sitting up and stretching. 

“Well I should probably get going now. It's, wow it's almost seven I should definitely be getting home.” Crutchie was surprised at how much time had passed. He was sure it hadn't been more than an hour since the other guys had left but it had actually been over three. 

“You could always stay over?” Jack said with a smirk on his face, always one to be a flirt. Crutchie rolled his eyes but still flushed anyway. 

“I don't have any clothes genius.” Crutchie said, looking around for his shoes that he had put somewhere when the guys were still over.

“You can just wear mine. Or you can sleep in the nude.” Crutchie snapped around so fast he was surprised he didn't get dizzy. Jack was wiggling his eyebrows at him and he snorted. 

“Yeah, of course. Duh. So simple, I should have thought of that,” Crutchie said in a sarcastic voice, “seriously though, I should go.” He found his shoes and started putting them on when he heard the basement door open again and Medda came down. 

“I'm cooking dinn- oh leaving so soon? It's already so late! Why don't you just stay here? I'm cooking spaghetti with homemade meatballs!” Medda was smiling, but Crutchie sort of slumped. He was trying to get out of staying the night, but he couldn't just say no to her. That would be rude or something, right? He turned to Jack, who was pouting at him and giving him puppy dog eyes. He inwardly groaned. 

“Okay, I'll stay.” Crutchie said, defeated. Jack cheered and Medda laughed. 

“Great! I'll be sure to make enough for three tonight.” Medda announced before heading back up the stairs. Crutchie slipped his shoes back off and walked back over to Jack's bed and slumped over onto it again. 

“You just peer-pressured me. You're a bad influence.” He looked up at Jack who just laughed. 

“Come on, let's get upstairs.” Was all Jack said before tugging on Crutchie’s arm and basically dragging him up the stairs. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember you can follow me on tumblr @bentylershook and yell at me there too!


	5. Crutchie Stays the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crutchie's adorable and Jack is helpless.

Dinner hadn't taken too long to cook, which Crutchie was thankful for. He hadn't eaten since close to one so he was starved. Jack, Medda, and him all sat on the couch in the lounging room while they ate. It was delicious, Crutchie enjoyed it very much. He didn't get home cooked meals often, so this is was great. When they were done eating they placed their plates in the sink and were about to head back down when Medda called to them.

“Crutchie, do you have any clothes dear? You can run home and grab some if you want, I'll leave the door unlocked.” She popped her head around the corner and looked at the two of them.

“He can just wear some of my clothes Aunt Medda, it's alright.” Jack called back to her. Crutchie just smiled and nodded, he was already very tired. Medda raised an eyebrow at Jack, but said nothing and just nodded before heading to her room too. Jack and Crutchie headed downstairs, and Jack went to his drawers to look for something for Crutchie to put on. He pulled out a plain black t-shirt and paused before grabbing some bottoms.

“Shorts or pants?” He turned to Crutchie, who looked like he was caught off guard by the question before shaking his head like he was trying to clear it.

“Shorts.” Crutchie answered. He always preferred shorts to pants, especially if they were going to be too big on him, which he knew they definitely were. Jack pulled out a pair of grey shorts and tossed the shirt and shorts to Crutchie, who barely caught them in time. He then left to go change, while Jack changed into a blue shirt and black pajama pants. When Crutchie came back down, Jack's eyes widened. The shirt was way too big on him and was super baggy and adorable, same with the shorts.

“You look the most adorable I have ever seen you.” Jack posed it as teasing, but he was just speaking the truth, he looked like a puppy and Jack thought he was dying.

“I look like a child.” Crutchie grumbled before walking to the couch and laying down. Crutchie’s grumpiness only made him cuter, in Jack's opinion. He didn't understand why he was lying on the couch though. Well he understood, he just didn’t think he had to. His bed was big enough, they could share. It wasn’t just because it was Crutchie, either. He’d shared his bed with anyone who stayed over. Just felt like the nice thing to do. Especially because the couch was incredibly uncomfortable to sleep on.

“You aren't sleeping on the couch, Crutch. Come over here.” Jack was sitting on his bed and waiting for Crutchie to get up. When he finally did his cheeks were the slightest bit pink and he looked even grumpier. He made his way over to Jack's bed and climbed in, getting under the covers immediately. Jack did the same. Jack laid down facing Crutchie, and Crutchie was facing him.

“Get your cute face away from me, I wanna sleep.” Crutchie mumbled before turning away so his back was facing Jack. Jack just laughed, turned off the light, and curled up to go to sleep.

When Jack woke up, Crutchie was still sleeping, facing Jack once more and curled into his side. He looked so peaceful. It didn’t last long. Something must have tickled his nose somehow because he sneezed and woke himself up. Jack started cracking up, he had never seen someone sneeze in their sleep and wake themself up before and early in the morning, he found it hilarious. Crutchie started chuckling a little too, still half asleep. After a few minutes of laying in silence, Crutchie checked his phone and then shot out of bed. It was the fastest Jack had seen him move.

“Hey, Crutch what's wrong?” Jack asked while Crutchie was moving around quickly, grabbing his clothes and heading towards the stairs, assumingly to head to the bathroom to change.

“It's after ten! I have to go, like right now!” Crutchie then went up the stairs and came back down in record time, wearing the clothes he had worn yesterday.

“Jesus Crutch, you can slow down a little, can't you?” Jack was worried his heart rate might go crazy with the speed at which he was moving. Crutchie sighed.

“Yeah, no need to be so frantic,” Crutchie let out a breathy laugh, “I'm sorry I have to leave so soon. I'll see you on Monday though! Bye!” Crutchie had his shoes on and was quickly out the door. Jack heard the front door open and close too. He sighed and flopped onto his back on his bed. He pulled out his phone, and contemplated on texting Race or Davey. He figured Davey would be a better help in this situation rather than Race who would likely tease him. He sent a quick text to Davey asking if he was awake. He got a quick response saying that he'd been up since seven and to ‘get on his level.’ Jack called him as soon as he got the text.

“Jack?” Davey answered the phone after the second ring.

“Daaaaaveeeeyyy.” Jack whined into the phone, and Davey sighed.

“What's wrong Jack?” Davey sounded like a tired mother and Jack would have laughed had it not been such a desperate situation.

“It's Crutchie. I think I'm in love.” Davey snorted on the other end of the line.

“Jack you've known him, what, two days? You can't be in love.” Jack hoped he could feel his glare through the phone.

“Dave. I don't mean it literally! Like, I guess I already kind of liked him before too? I'd seen him around school, and I have a few classes with him. He's just so cute and I'm dying here Dave.” Jack made a cry-laugh sort of noise.

“Ugh, give me a minute Jack, I'm coming over.” Dave sighed, and it was Jack's turn to snort.

“How? You don't drive Dave.” Jack reminded him. He didn't drive, he rode with the guys in Race’s van.

“You're right, I don't drive. Doesn't mean I can't. I have a car, remember? I just choose not to use it. Now I gotta go I'm already in the car.” Then Davey hung up and Jack was left to wallow all by himself for a whole five minutes. He was clearly dying. Jack heard the door to the basement open and turned his head to see Davey.

“Help me.” Jack said miserably. He was on his stomach in starfish position with his head at the bottom of the bed. Davey laughed at him.

“Jeez Jack, I don't think I've ever seen you this distressed about anyone before. Except maybe that girl reporter after she dropped you for my sister.” Davey shoved Jack and sat next to him on his bed. Jack groaned.

“Don't remind me of that. The guys wouldn't stop teasing me for weeks. You included.” Jack then shoved Davey off of his bed and he landed with a hard thud.

“Ow! Jerk,” Davey stood up and sat back on the bed, “anyways, what has you worked up so much about this Crutchie guy?” Jack sighed.

“So, we all hung out yesterday, right? Well Crutchie stayed longer than you guys did. Well he actually stayed a lot longer than you guys. He stayed the night.” Davey gave him a shocked expression.

“Like, _stayed the night_ , or?” Davey looked a little more confused than anything.

“God, Dave, of course not! Who do you think I am! It was completely friendly. Well…” Jack trailed off and Davey raised his eyebrows.

“Well what? You can't just trail off like that, give me details!” He claimed incredulously. Davey would never admit it, but he was a sucker for the nitty-gritty details and any sort of gossip.

“Well, first we were just talking for a while, and the time flew by. As it got later, Crutchie and I were laying on our sides facing each other and talking. We started leaning in, and we were so close Dave, so close! Then Aunt Medda came home and it completely ruined it. I had asked Crutchie to stay the night, he had refused, but then Medda asked him to stay so then he agreed. I was going to kiss him Davey! I was hoping another chance would come around again, but it didn't happen. I'm dying Dave.” Jack had sat up during his little speech and was now flopped over Davey’s lap, flailing his arms.

“Jack have you considered just, oh I don't know, asking him out? If you were close to kissing last night, and the fact that he got insanely flustered while you were flirting with him, I doubt he'd say no! Jackie, think about it.” Davey poked Jack's face for emphasis and he batted his hand away.

“I can't just do that Dave! I'm not that bold.” Jack sighed and Dave started laughing.

“That's the biggest lie I've ever heard. Jack Kelly? Not bold? Who are you kidding? You're the boldest person I've ever known, especially when it comes to pursuing someone you like. What's so different with Crutchie?” Davey raised an eyebrow. Jack sat up quickly.

“You're right! I'm Jack Kelly! I can do anything! Even ask out Crutchie,” Jack's face fell from a proud smile to a sheepish one, “but maybe not until tomorrow.” Davey laughed but nodded anyway.

“That works, you'll see him at school tomorrow, ask him sometime then.” Jack smiled. Yeah, he could do that. 

Davey left not too long after that, having sorted everything out with Jack and needing to get back home to do homework. Jack decided to work on his homework as well. Not too long after he started, he stopped when he got a notification on his phone. A text from Crutchie.

_Crutchie_  
Hey, sorry I had to book it out of there! It's my mom's first day off in a long time and we had a day planned together so I needed to get home. I'll see you at school tomorrow though, right?

Jack sent back a quick message saying of course. He kind of had to if he was going to ask him out. He might not do it during school though. He was thinking he might ask him to go to practice and he'd ask him after or something. He wasn't sure on the plans. For the time being though, he needed to focus on his homework.


	6. Jack Is Nervous and He Does Not Like It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is nervous about asking Crutchie out. Other things I guess.

Jack was nervous about asking Crutchie out. He couldn't explain it, but he was nervous. He didn't think he liked it. When Jack got to school on Monday, he kept actively avoiding Crutchie. Davey realized this after Crutchie went up to him after their third period class.

“Hey Davey, have you talked to Jack today? I've barely seen him. We have second together but he came in late and was out of the door before the bell even finished ringing. Is something up?” Crutchie looked concerned, and Davey sighed. He sighs a lot when it comes to the team it seems.

“I think I know what's wrong. I have fourth with him, I'll talk to him then.” Davey patted Crutchie on the shoulder before heading off. When Jack saw the look on Davey’s face when he walked into the classroom, he knew something was up.

“What's up Dave?” Jack asked as Davey sat down in his regular seat next to him. Davey just looked over and raised his eyebrows.

“You're avoiding Crutchie.” Was all Davey had to say for Jack to put his head down on his desk. Davey smirked at him.

“I know. I'm nervous Dave. I'm like, never nervous about this sort of thing. What's wrong with me?” He pouted at Davey and Davey laughed.

“You have lunch with him next, right? Ask him then!” Davey didn't really understand the problem. There was no way Crutchie would say no. Jack still looked weary though.

“I don't just want to blurt it out! Especially in the cafeteria of all places. I'll ask him to come to practice today, and I'll ask him after or something.” Davey was skeptical, but he let the conversation drop. He grabbed out his history book and Jack did the same. He normally didn't like history, but they were going over some interesting stuff right now. A lot of stuff about the US in the nineteenth century.

When Crutchie made it to the cafeteria for lunch, he started looking for Katherine, he normally sat with her and the rest of the newspaper crew, sometimes the photography crew would be there too; it depended on the day. He was really excited to talk to her about everything that had gone down since the game on Friday. When he finally spotted her, he started walking over. When he saw Jack at the table, he sped up. He hadn't been able to talk to Jack at all yet and he didn't want him to leave before he got there. Thankfully, he was still at the table when Crutchie came up.

“Crutchie! Hey!” Katherine called when she saw him. Jack looked up and smiled when he saw him too. Crutchie blushed a little.

“Hey Kath! Hey Jack, what brings you to this table?” Crutchie sat down in his usual spot next to Katherine. Jack was sitting in it before, but he slid to the chair to the other side of it so Crutchie could sit in his normal seat.

“Sorry Crutch, can't stay over here long, the guys will probably kill each other without me,” Crutchie laughed, he didn't doubt it, “but I wanted to ask if you could come to practice today?” A normal person would have missed the small tint of pink on Jack's face, but he'd spent so much time looking at it the past few days that he noticed it immediately.

“Well, uh, Kath could you cover for me at newspaper today? I could always use the time to talk more with the team, get more for my story. Could you tell Denton that's where I'll be?” Crutchie turned to Katherine, who had a knowing look on her face and she smiled at him.

“Of course Crutchie. I'm sure Denton won't mind if I say it's for more stuff for the story.” Katherine winked at him as he turned back to Jack.

“Well since that's figured out, yes, I can come to practice today.” Crutchie gave a big smile, which Jack returned before standing up and excusing himself to go back to his table. As soon as he was out of earshot, Finch, who was in photography, spoke up.

“Jack Kelly, huh? Crutchie here is in with the big leagues, folks!” Finch was one of Crutchie’s good friends and always had been. He loved picking on Crutchie, in the friendliest way possible.

“Yeah, I actually wanted to talk to you all about what happened over the weekend! It was one heck of a time.” Then Crutchie delved into the story. Everyone listened closely. They all loved when Crutchie had stories to tell because the way he told them was always fun and interesting. He told them all about getting the story first, of course, but talked about all the other things that happened. Jack's flirting, getting pizza, all of it. He talked about how he was invited over the next day to hang out with the team, Jack having him stay longer which then led to him staying the night. He tried to keep the story brief but it still took close to ten minutes to finish. Crutchie always rambled with the details.

“Wait, you mean to tell me you stayed the night at Jack fucking Kelly’s?” Finch asked, shock written all over his face.

“Well, yeah? Oh, I forgot to mention that we may have almost kissed?” Crutchie posed it like a question. Katherine gasped at that.

“You kissed him?” Katherine looked between shock, confusion, and excitement.

“Almost. We almost kissed. Then his aunt came home and, well…” Crutchie trailed off, knowing that they'd get the drift.

“Holy shit Crutch. So why do you think he wants you at practice? Do you think he's gonna ask you out? What if he kisses you at practice! Crutchie, this is so exciting!” Skittery, who was a year behind Crutchie but also a really good friend of his, looked more excited than Crutchie did. On the inside though, Crutchie was that excited times a hundred. Just as nervous though. He had no idea what to expect.

“I'm not sure about all that. I guess I'll have to see. I'm definitely going to tell you all what happens tomorrow though!” Crutchie smiled at them all and they chuckled. Lunch went on pretty uneventfully after that. Katherine and Sarah did mention their joined story for the paper though. Sarah was in charge of pictures, as she was in photography, and Katherine was of course writing it. They didn't mention what it was about yet though.

Crutchie hadn't realized before, but he had his fifth period class with Spot and Race. They apparently hadn't realized either, because when they saw Crutchie come in they looked confused, but they waved him over. Crutchie wasn’t sure how he missed them before, they were known for being disruptive in class.

“This might make me sound like a huge dickhead, but I never noticed that you were in this class before.” Spot laughed as Race said what Crutchie had assumed. Crutchie laughed too though, and Race felt less like a dick forsaying it aloud.

“It's alright. If I'm being honest, I hadn't noticed you two were in this class either.” Crutchie shrugged, and the two of them did the same. They talked a little before class started. They weren't as easy to talk to as Jack, Crutchie noted, but it was easy enough. They were nice guys, if a little rowdy.

“Hey Crutch, Jack mentioned that you were going to be at practice, but wouldn't tell us why, we’re assuming you know?” Race mentioned eventually. Race had found it confusing when Jack wouldn't tell them, considering he’d already told them he was coming, so he figured why not ask Crutchie.

“No, he just asked me to come to practice today and that was it. I figured I could maybe use the time to put start putting together the story, but I don't know anything about Jack.” Race furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He'd have to ask Jack later or just wait and see what happens at practice. He wasn't patient though, so he'd have to try and hunt Jack down during passing.

Race was able to catch up to Jack during passing, but Jack still wouldn’t tell him anything. Race confronted him at the beginning of practice too. 

“Jack, come on! Tell me! I need to tease you about whatever it is properly!” He wasn’t actually mad, he could never be mad at Jack, they’d been friends for way too long.

“Not telling you, Race! It’s nothing you need to know.” Jack crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue at Race, like a child.

“He’s gonna ask Crutchie out.”

“Dave! How could you betray me like that?” Davey just laughed and left the dugout. Race started laughing.

“I knew it! Of course you are, you’ve been gaga over him since the game.” Race was still chuckling when he left the dugout. Jack didn’t know what was so funny. Jack waited for Crutchie as long as he could before he had to get on the field, but he still hadn’t showed up. If he didn’t show up, he could just ask tomorrow, no problem. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not that huge on this chapter if I'm being honest. I don't know why, I'm just...not. Tell me how it is in the comments? Also catch me on tumblr @bentylershook


	7. Jack Does the Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crutchie is worried about what Jack could want to say for the whole practice. Jack is worried about doing it for the whole practice.

Crutchie was a little late to practice, so he wasn't able to talk to Jack when he got there. He had caught up to Katherine in the hallway, and she reminded him that he was going to baseball practice. It was just routine to catch up to Katherine after sixth and walk to newspaper together. He thanked her for reminding him and he ran off as fast as he could comfortably go.

Soon enough a break came for most of the guys as the coach wanted the other pitchers to get some practice. Race wasn't the only pitcher of course, but he was always the one to pitch during practices and games. So while the few pitchers practiced, the other boys got a second to drink some water and take a breather. Jack went over to where Crutchie was sitting and sat next to him. Crutchie hadn't seen him coming, he was writing, so he jumped when Jack sat.

“Jesus don't sneak up on a boy like that! You'll give me a heart attack!” Crutchie placed a hand to his heart. Jack chuckled a little. It felt like this happened before, Jack scaring him and all.

“Sorry Crutch, didn't mean to scare you. You came here a little late, thought you might have ditched.” Jack leaned back casually and stretched out.

“Well it's been routine to always go to newspaper after school so I started walking there. Katherine had to remind me that I was coming out here today instead.” Crutchie laughed at himself. He was often pretty forgetful.

“That's fair. What were you writing when I came over?” Jack leaned over to look at his journal, but Crutchie held it to his chest.

“Ah ah ah! I'm writing the story for the game. It needs to be done before Friday. You won't get to see it until it's in the paper though!” Crutchie stuck out his tongue at Jack and he just laughed. He held his hands up in defense.

“Alright, alright. I won't try to read it again.” Jack put his hands down and stared at his feet. He smirked before swaying his body to the side and nudging Crutchie. Crutchie did it back and they laughed.

“Hey Jack, why did you want me to come to practice today? I've been curious since you asked at lunch. I’m missing newspaper for this so it better be good.” Crutchie smiled shyly at Jack and Jack blushed that little bit again. Crutchie still found it cute.

“Well, uh. I don't, um. Hm.” Jack couldn't find the right words to say. Davey came around to where they were moments later.

“Jack, we’re back on the field, come on.” Jack felt like he had been blessed from the heavens, not having to continue stuttering.

“I'll tell you later Crutch!” Jack called back as he was dragged onto the field. Davey leaned in and spoke quietly in his ear.

“Jack, you have to do it.” Davey reminded him and he sighed, but nodded. Then it was back to practice time. He knew he needed to just ask him out. Simple. He had worked up the courage to do it before practice, but he lost that courage quickly when practice actually started. He really didn't like being this nervous about something. Crutchie was different though, he could just tell. It was like they had a connection that Jack had never felt before. He didn't want to screw it up.

Crutchie sat, still working on the story. He really liked how it was coming so far, even if only the rough draft. He didn't realize until he was really writing it, but he had a lot of good stuff written down in his notes to add to the story. He was nearly finished with the rough draft when practice was close to over. The guys were all in the dugout grabbing their things and chatting before actually needing to leave. Jack called Crutchie over.

“Hey Jack, what's up? I was just about to leave actually.” Crutchie walked over to Jack, who smiled at him a little nervously.

“Uh, yeah. I was going to ask if it wouldn't be too much trouble for you to drive me home again. I have something I need to talk to you about.” Crutchie was a little nervous, not liking the way that sounded. It sounded like it was something bad. Still, he nodded.

“It's no trouble Jack, it's on my way back home anyways.” Crutchie shrugged and Jack smiled. He could do this. 

All the guys walked to the parking lot together, just messing around as always. Jack and Crutchie stayed towards the back as the other guys went ahead.

“Jack, you still haven't told me why you had me come to practice today. You can tell me if it's something bad, I can take it.” The look on Crutchie’s face said otherwise. He was starting to look really nervous. They had reached Crutchie’s car finally and he turned to look at Jack. Jack felt bad, as it was technically his fault that he was so nervous. 

“It’s-it’s not bad, I promise! I just…” He trailed off, not knowing what to say.

“It’s totally fine Jack! I swear it’s fine. I’ve been told plenty of bad things in my life. Like when I was told I’d always need to use a crutch, or when my dad left, or when my mom had to take on more work. I’m sure it couldn’t be worse than that so-”

Without thinking, Jack cupped Crutchie’s face and kissed him. He could hear cheers from a short distance away and he knew it was the guys at Race’s van. Crutchie kissed back after a second of being in shock, and Jack sighed a relief into the kiss. When he pulled away, he was blushing.

“I, uh, sorry. I just, you were rambling about bad things and you looked so sad and I wanted to show that this wasn’t go to be a bad thing so I just, um. Anyways, uh, the reason I wanted you to come to practice was so I could ask you if you wanted to go out with me?” Jack spoke very quickly, thankfully Crutchie could understand what he was saying. Jack gave a shy smile and Crutchie smiled ten times as big.

“Yes! Of course! I'm just so glad it wasn't something bad like you were annoyed with me or something.” Crutchie laughed and Jack did the same.

“I could never get annoyed with you Crutchie.” Jack leaned down to kiss Crutchie again and the cheering started again. This time when they pulled away, Jack and Crutchie both turned to where the guys were.

“Get some Kelly!” Race yelled, causing everyone to laugh. Crutchie and Jack got into the car after some more laughing with the other guys as they did the same.

Crutchie dropped Jack off at his house with a kiss, and waited until he got inside to start driving away. When he got home, he saw his mom was home, which was rare, but he didn't question it. He was grateful that she was actually home for once.

Crutchie had a nice dinner with his mom on a school night, something that happened maybe ten times a year, and he went to bed that night so happy it felt like his heart would explode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short, sorry. I don't think it's that good either but I mean look! They did the thing! Look at them! Yeah! Remember you can follow me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	8. Jack Stays the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack stays over at Crutchie's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is Good and Gay, I hope you enjoy it.

The rest of the week was simultaneously the most boring and most exciting week Crutchie'd had. It was boring because it seemed like nothing could compare to the excitement of Monday, but it was also exciting because Jack was always being the sweetest and making Crutchie happy. It was also pretty exciting because Katherine and Sarah finally announced their story for the school paper. It was going to be a little something on LGBT rights at the school. It took some convincing, but Mr. Denton finally let them run with it. Crutchie had volunteered to be interviewed if Katherine wanted to, and she answered with a very enthusiastic nod of her head. They both turned in their stories on Friday so they could be looked over and be ready to get uploaded to the school’s website on Saturday. Crutchie had had a bit of a hard time finishing his paper, he had a lot of homework throughout the week, but he did it and he was proud of it. Crutchie had also been driving Jack to and from school everyday as well. He definitely didn't mind, and he had figured it would just turn into a regular thing anyway. The same happened after school on Friday. Crutchie didn't have newspaper on Fridays, but he stayed at practice and watched until it was over to drive Jack home. Jack met Crutchie as they started walking towards the parking lot with an arm wrapped around him and a kiss to the top of his head. Crutchie pushed him off.

“You're gross and sweaty right now!” Jack mocked a hurt expression, but then he gave a mischievous smile and picked Crutchie up off the ground in a bear hug.

“Now you can be gross and sweaty too!” Crutchie was trying to pull away from him, but he was still smiling and laughing.

“Jack, that's gay.” Spot was walking past with Race at that point, towards Race’s van as always.

“Spot, we’re gay.” Race was laughing at him and Spot shoved his arm. They had a weird dynamic those two.

“You're bi, actually. Keep your facts straight, asshole.” They continued arguing the whole way to the van. 

“Don't you mean, “keep your facts gay”?” Spot just glared at him before hitting him upside the head, making him laugh harder. Jack had put Crutchie down by then.

“Gross. I really am gross and sweaty now.” Crutchie scrunched up his nose, and Jack kissed it, causing Crutchie to aim his scrunched nose towards him now instead of just in general. Jack smirked.

“I know a better way we can get sweaty.” He then began wiggling his eyebrows and Crutchie burst out laughing.

“Every time you say stuff like that it just gets funnier.” Crutchie and Jack were at his car now, and Jack placed his bag in the trunk.

“Well, what if I'm not joking sometimes?” Jack’s face was still teasing though. Crutchie raised an eyebrow at him and snorted.

“You better be joking. I'm saving myself for the Lord Jesus Christ.” Crutchie placed a hand on his heart and Jack almost doubled over laughing. Crutchie didn't think it was that funny, but he wasn't complaining. He liked making Jack laugh.

“Yeah, okay Crutch. Hey do you maybe just want to stay over at my place?” Crutchie and Jack were in the car now and putting on their seatbelts. Safety first! Jack gave him a big smile, hoping that would help to convince him.

“Uh, I don't know about that.” Crutchie didn't want to go into details. His mom just hadn't been pleased about him staying at a boy’s place whom she didn't know. Even if Crutchie was a Junior in high school. His mom was weird that way, always had been.

“Well, can I come to your place then? I still haven't been there, and I want to hang out with you Crutch.” Jack pouted at him. He'd already realized it was easy to get his way with Crutchie when he pouted. He had too much power, Crutchie decided. He sighed.

“I'm sure my mom won't mind. It's not like she'll be home anyways. You definitely won't fit any of my clothes though, so we’re stopping by your house so you can grab some.” Jack agreed. He was just happy he could spend more time with him, and he got to see his house for the first time. The place he spent all of his time.

They stopped at Jack's house, and it looked like Medda was home. Jack walked through the door and tossed his baseball stuff off to the side of the door. Crutchie followed in after Jack, and Medda greeted them both.

“Jack! Oh, and Crutchie! Are you staying over again, dear?” Jack had told Medda about him and Crutchie going out the night it happened. She was his Aunt Medda, he told her practically everything. She was also very accepting, which was another reason why he loved her. She was very excited for Jack, of course, but she had also known from the moment she saw the two of them that there was something there. Jack was confused that she wasn’t surprised in anyway, and Medda had laughed.

“Not this time Aunt Medda, I was actually going to stay over at Crutchie’s. That okay?” Jack never really had to ask to go somewhere, Medda just wanted to be told where he'd be and for him to keep out of trouble, but he always felt it was nice to ask.

“Of course, honey. Have fun!” She winked at Crutchie and he thought he might have figured out where Jack got it from. They walked down to the basement so Jack could grab some clothes. Crutchie sat on his bed while he rummaged through his dresser. Once he'd grabbed the clothes he wanted they headed out.

Since this was the first time Jack had ever gone to Crutchie’s house, it was his first time realizing just how close their houses were. Crutchie was one street over.

“I could literally walk to your house in like, five minutes. I will definitely keep that in mind.” Crutchie unlocked the door and they both walked inside.

“Never thought of that, but yeah. I guess you could. Sorry for the mess by the way, we almost never have company and since my mom is always at work and I'm always at school or doing homework, we don't have the most time to keep things tidy.” Crutchie had always been self-conscious about his house. It was never really the cleanest place, and that embarrassed him.

“It's fine, Crutch. Don't worry.” Crutchie smiled a little at that. He was happy that Jack wasn't upset by the mess, he'd met plenty of people who were. Crutchie led Jack to his room to put his stuff down before going back to the kitchen to figure out something for dinner.

“We don't have much to eat. I normally have some ramen or something because I don't really know how to cook and I'm usually alone for dinner anyway.” Crutchie was looking through the cupboards, looking for more options than just ramen. He should have thought it through more before letting Jack come over right away, he wasn't prepared at all.

“I can cook, at least a little, let's see what you got. Aunt Medda liked teaching me while she cooked, so I know a few things.” Jack opened the fridge and began moving things around. He grabbed a few things out, and then after some direction from Crutchie on what cupboard held what, he had a small armful of things.

“What are you planning to make with all of that?” Crutchie had only ever seen his mom cook, and it was mostly something easy that came from a box or cheap dinners like spaghetti or some sort of casserole. Jack held a lot more than a simple box or the ingredients for a casserole.

“Well, you have all the stuff you need for some pasta with a simple sauce. It'll taste good, I promise. I think we can make enough to leave leftovers for your mom too, if you like. It won't be bad reheated I don't think.” Jack smiled and Crutchie was smacked in the face with the realization of how nice this was. He could just about cry, this was probably the sweetest he had ever seen Jack. They hadn't even been together for a week, but Crutchie was falling hard.

“If you insist. I'm sure my mom would appreciate it too. Thank you, Jack. This is really sweet of you.” Jack just smiled wider and began cooking. 

Jack was right, it was pretty tasty. The sauce was simple, and it was just store bought pasta, but it tasted pretty good. They put the leftovers into a container and placed it in the fridge. Crutchie also left a note for his mom, saying that Jack made some food, and the leftovers were in the fridge for her. That also reminded him to text his mom's phone to at least let her know that Crutchie had someone over. He knew she wouldn't get it until she was off work, but it's always good to notify her before she's actually home. After dinner, Jack and Crutchie went back to Crutchie’s room and sat on the bed.

Jack took a little time to take in his room. He didn't have much on the walls, but he did have a few shelves lined with multiple different things, some even held stuffed animals. Jack liked the room, it felt cozy. After a while of just looking around, he layed back on the bed with a sigh.

“You have a nice room, Crutch.” There had been a comfortable silence, but Jack's voice wasn't unwelcome. Crutchie laughed.

“Thanks, I guess. It's been my room since I was born, but it's never really changed much.” Crutchie layed back next to Jack. Jack turned to him, and Crutchie did the same.

“This is similar to how we were laying on my bed just last weekend.” Jack motioned to their position and Crutchie laughed. It was true, it was practically the same position, just a different place.

“Yeah, well last time we didn't do this.” Crutchie leaned in and kissed Jack softly. Jack tried to kiss Crutchie as often as humanly possible, but with the school's no PDA policy and them always needing to rush after school to get home, the kisses were always short. Too short. This one felt so nice. Even the first kiss they shared wasn't like this. This kiss was soft and sweet. So gentle. It's like everything was being poured into the kiss. If Jack had been standing his knees probably would have gone weak and given out on him. He was glad they were laying down, so something like that wouldn't ruin it. Jack had a feeling that this would have been similar to the kiss they almost shared at his house, but he was glad it was happening now instead.

As they kissed, they pulled each other closer until they were flush against each other. It was still an innocent kiss, they were just holding each other close, not wanting to let go. When they finally took a break to breathe, they just smiled while staring at the other. Crutchie figured his face was red. Not only could he feel it, but if Jack's face was anything to go by, his face was definitely red.

“We should probably put on pajamas or something.” Crutchie said finally. Jack groaned.

“I don't want to get up. I just want to stay here and keep kissing you.” Jack pouted again, but Crutchie wasn't about to let himself sleep in jeans.

“We can kiss more once we’re in pajamas.” Crutchie sat up before getting off the bed and going towards his dresser. He heard Jack groan again before he heard what he assumed was him sitting up.

“Can I at least help you?” Crutchie could hear the smirk in Jack's voice and he rolled his eyes.

“You're ridiculous. Take your clothes and change in the bathroom.” Crutchie grabbed Jack's clothes and threw them at his face. He laughed and started heading for the door.

“You're no fun!” Jack was already outside the door, calling back to Crutchie. Crutchie just laughed. When he heard the bathroom door close, he began to change into his pajamas. A baggy shirt and a pair of shorts. He realized it wasn't much different to what he wore when he stayed at Jack's and it made him giggle. Jack came in not too long after Crutchie was finished changing.

“Adorable, as always.” Jack quickly walked over to Crutchie and kissed him again. It was another slow and sweet one, and while they were kissing Jack led them back towards the bed. They reached the bed faster than he thought they would, and when the back of his legs hit the edge of the bed he fell backwards, Crutchie being dragged with him and falling on top of him. They both started laughing. When they were done laughing they had tears in their eyes and were back on their backs next to each other. They spent the rest of the night just kissing, cuddling, and talking. They both fell asleep in each other's arms with smiles on their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I've finally finished writing this fic so I'll be posting about daily! My schedule is weird so sometimes I might post twice in one day or not at all another day. The chapters will be coming out quickly though! Hope you enjoy where it goes from here! Follow me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	9. Davey Gets Angry?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey hangs out with Jack for maybe twenty minutes before he gets angry and storms out. Jack is very confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol this chapter is short and is kinda bad but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
> 
> Also, I know I technically posted chapter 8 earlier today, but my sleep/time schedule is wack so like, this counts as tomorrow for me, if that makes sense. Just take this anyway.

Jack and Crutchie were still tangled together when Jack woke up. He woke up first, and just looked at Crutchie. He really did like this boy. He started mindlessly running his fingers through Crutchie’s hair, and he started to wake up. He leaned down and kissed his forehead.

“Morning, beautiful.” Crutchie, still looking half asleep, smiled and leaned up as far as he could to kiss Jack. It was a quicker one, Crutchie broke the kiss to stretch. He turned back to Jack and kissed him again when he was done though. Jack reached his hand under Crutchie’s shirt and rested it on his waist casually, almost instinctively. It was a bit of a shock to Crutchie, but he didn't mind it. They stayed like that for a while, just cuddling and kissing, the same as the previous night. Jack’s phone started vibrating and he groaned. He pulled it out to see who was calling. It was just Davey, so he didn’t think it was necessary to answer. When he called a second time, Jack figured it was probably something important so he answered it.

“What do you want Dave?” Jack’s voice was still groggy, it hadn’t been long since he’d woken up. He cleared his throat.  
“I’m at your house. We were going to hang out today? Where are you?” Davey didn’t sound angry, more confused. Maybe annoyed.

“Shit Davey I’m sorry I forgot. I stayed over at Crutchie’s but I’ll be there soon.” Jack hung up before Davey could respond and hopped out of bed.

“What’s up Jack? Everything okay?” Crutchie sat up and looked at his boyfriend concerned. Wait, they never confirmed they were boyfriends yet, was he allowed to call him that? He’d have to talk to him about it later.

“Everything’s fine, don’t worry. I just forgot that I promised Davey that we’d hang out this weekend and he’s currently at my house. Do you think you could give me a ride over there?” Crutchie chuckled, of course he forgot. He forgot a lot of things.

“You know you can walk there in like, five minutes right? Didn’t we establish this last night?” Even so, Crutchie still moved to get out of bed to get ready to drive him.

“Yeah? So?” He smirked at Crutchie and Crutchie just stuck his tongue out at him.

“Go get dressed, idiot.” Crutchie threw a pillow at his face. Jack mocked being offended and stormed out of the room. Crutchie changed out of his shorts into pants, and then they left to drive Jack back to his house. They got there very quickly, as usual, and Davey was sitting at the front door.

“God, took you long enough. It’s freezing out here!” Davey stood up when he saw the car stop in front of the house. Jack got out of the car and went to Crutchie’s side to give him a quick kiss through the window.

“Sorry Dave,” he turned back to Crutchie one more time, “bye Crutch.” He went up and unlocked the door for him and Davey to enter. Crutchie drove off once they were in the house.

“So you stayed over at Crutchie’s huh?” By the tone in his voice, Jack couldn’t tell if Davey was teasing or not. He decided he’d assume that he was.

“Jeez mom, nothing happened.” They made their way down the stairs into the basement that was Jack’s room. Jack instantly ran to his bed and flopped down on it, motioning for Davey to do the same. He didn’t, he just walked over and sat down on the bed like a normal person.

“So, what’s the plan for today? Anything special?” Davey was looking up at the ceiling, laying down on his back on Jack’s bed.

“Nothing planned, no. Oh, but I did want to talk to you about yesterday with Crutchie! It was so nice Dave, we just cuddled and we-” Jack stopped talking when Davey sat up and gave him a look. He looked… angry? Maybe… sad? Jack couldn’t tell.

“I’d rather not hear about Crutchie right now, Jack.” Davey had this weird look on his face. It was like a mixture of sad and uncomfortable maybe? What was wrong?

“Dave, I just wanted to tell you about my day. It was a good day, and that’s what friends do! Are you alright?” Davey sighed and rubbed his face. He looked really stressed. Maybe he was just stressed about school? That happened a lot, actually. Davey was a stresser.

“You’ve never wanted to talk this much about anyone you’ve dated before. Why now? Why Crutchie? What makes him so special?” Davey didn’t mean his words to sound so malicious, but they came out sounding pretty angry. Jack was shocked for a moment. Davey knew that he liked Crutchie, hell, he was the one pushing for him to ask him out. What was his problem? Did he not like Crutchie or something? He could just tell him that.

“I don’t know, Dave! I just, I just really like him I guess? I figured you’d be happy, you’re the one that told me to ask him out in the first place!” Jack was so confused. Davey normally told him if he had a problem with someone, so if he didn’t like Crutchie he could very well just tell him. It wasn’t a big deal.

“I should have just left you to spend time with Crutchie today. I really can’t have this conversation right now. See you Monday, Jack.” With that, Davey left. Jack was more confused than ever. He sat silently for a few minutes just thinking. He couldn’t just be stressed about school, could he? Davey never got angry when he got stressed about school. What could be up with him? He went upstairs a few minutes later and saw Medda sitting on the couch drinking a cup of tea.

“Jack! Weren’t you and David meant to be hanging out today? Why did I just see him leave? He looked pretty angry too.” She raised an eyebrow at Jack. He sighed and flopped face first onto the other end of the couch.

“I don’t know! I was telling him about yesterday with Crutchie and he got upset. Then he started getting more upset about how I’m dating Crutchie, which I don’t understand at all. I thought he could maybe be stressed about school again, but he doesn’t normally get angry when he gets stressed so I don’t know what’s wrong. I thought he liked Crutchie!” Medda nodded silently for a few moments, processing. Suddenly, she got an idea. She couldn’t be sure if she was right, but she did normally have knack for knowing these sorts of things.

“Well dear, I think this is something you’re going to have to figure out on your own. I don’t think I have the right to tell you what I think is going on. Why not make a cup of hot chocolate, go down to your room and think for a little. I haven’t seen you sketch in a while, maybe do that. There’s a lot I think you should think about.” Jack groaned. He wanted help, not weird riddles. 

“Aunt Medda you’re supposed to help me out here,” she gave him a look, “fine! I’ll make some hot chocolate and sketch I guess.” He stormed off into the kitchen like a toddler and Medda chuckled at him.

“That boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on tumblr @bentylershook ! Next chapter is pretty Davey focused so be ready for that too.


	10. Davey: The Voluntary Third Wheel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey has a talk with Sarah and goes back to hang out with Jack. Crutchie is there. Davey is the third wheel, and he chose to be voluntarily.

After storming out of Jack’s house Davey went back to his own, hoping to talk to the only person he thought could help, his sister Sarah. His parents had already left for work so it’d just be Sarah, Les, and himself in the house. Perfect. When he saw Katherine’s car parked out front, he cursed. He’d just have to ask both of them for help. He got into the house and quickly made his way to Sarah’s room and knocked rapidly.

“Les, I’m busy!” Sarah must have assumed Davey was still at Jack’s. He did say he’d be there all day, so that made sense.

“Not Les. Sarah I need help, can I talk to you?” Davey heard quick footsteps on the other side of the door before it opened, revealing Sarah.

“Kath’s here, hope that’s alright.” Sarah brought Davey into her room and shut the door behind them. Katherine looked concerned from her place sitting on Sarah’s bed.

“That’s fine, maybe you both can help. It’s Jack trouble.” Davey slumped into Sarah’s desk chair and she went back to sitting on her bed next to Katherine.

“Jack trouble? Again? You poor boy.” Sarah gave him a sad smile that he responded to with a scowl.

“Jack trouble?” Katherine didn’t know what was going on. Sarah looked to Davey to explain.

“You tell her. I’m too miserable.” Sarah laughed a little at his brother being a drama queen before turning to Kath.

“Davey’s liked Jack for a while now, but he’s been too afraid to tell him. Then he decided to torture himself more and told Jack to ask Crutchie out. Now here we are, Davey’s a pining mess and Jack is dating someone else.” Sarah shrugged. Davey sighed at the end of her speech to give it emphasis.

“Oh, you poor boy.” Katherine said after a minute, repeating the same words Sarah had said.

“So what happened today? Give me the rundown.” Sarah put her hands in her lap and looked directly at Davey. She’d been doing this for a while now, so she acted like the counselor he made her out to be.

“Well when I got to his house the door was still locked, so I called him thinking he might still be asleep or something. He answered, we talked. Turns out he’d stayed at Crutchie’s last night and forgot we were hanging out all together. He hurried right over, but almost immediately started talking about his day with Crutchie yesterday, and I really didn’t want to hear it. I told him so, he got defensive, I stormed out. The end.” Davey just looked so exhausted. This boy had it bad.

“Well you shouldn’t hate Crutchie just because he’s dating Jack, right?” Sarah couldn’t think of much else to say. It obviously wasn’t a great answer, as Davey scowled at her again.

“I don’t hate him! He’s a cool guy, he’s funny. He’s not bad to hang out with either. I just really like Jack, and I’m jealous. Clearly.” Davey pouted slightly. Katherine, who seemed to be deep in thought, looked like she just got an idea.

“So David, why do you think Jack likes Crutchie?” Davey furrowed his eyebrows. He thought for a moment.

“I don’t know! Maybe because he’s funny? He’s nice? He’s a pretty okay guy to hang out with? What are you getting at?” Davey looked annoyed. She was just making him point out reasons the guy he likes, likes someone else. Katherine nodded and smiled. Sarah just looked confused. She didn’t know where Katherine was going with this either.

“What are your thoughts about Crutchie? Just, in general. Without him dating Jack, what are your thoughts?” Davey rolled his eyes. This wasn’t helping. He’d rather wallow in his own pity.

“Like I said, he’s nice. He’s funny, nice to be around, fun to hang out with.” Katherine nodded again.

“Then I say just focus on that. You can tell Jack that you don’t feel comfortable talking about Crutchie all the time, make up an excuse about it or something. Also ask him if they can be less couple-y around you. Jack will most likely respect your wishes. You’re his best friend. Then just hang out with them like normal. You like Crutchie well enough. I think that’s your best option here. After you apologize for blowing up on Jack, of course.” Sarah looked proud, Katherine was good at solving problems, she should’ve known she’d been great at solving this one.

“Ugh, fine whatever. I guess I can apologize. Thanks for the mediocre help, you two.” With that he left Sarah’s room and went out to the living room area, not really wanting to go into his shared room with Les and dealing with him. He loved his brother, he just already had a lot to deal with right now. He was going to call Jack, but decided texting would be better.

_Davey_  
Hey, sorry for blowing up earlier. I don’t really know why I did that. I know that you like Crutchie a lot and like talking about him, but maybe not so much in front of me? I’d rather not hear about my best friend’s romantic escapades with another guy I consider to be a friend, you know? I mean, you know how it is with Spot and Race.

Davey decided a more joking approach would be easier. It’d be harder to see what he was saying being something mean. His phone went off quickly after the text was sent.

_Jack_  
Dude, of course! You could have just told me. I’d never want to get as bad as Spot and Race, trust me. You can come back over if you want, I did promise we’d hang out. I invited Crutchie over after you left, but I can ask him to leave or something? I’m sure he won’t mind.

Davey laughed, but it was a real laugh, not a weird bitter laugh. He wasn’t upset that Jack invited Crutchie over, because of course he did. He was _okay_ with it. That was a start.

_Davey_  
Yeah I’ll come back over. I shouldn’t have stormed out anyway, it was stupid. Crutchie doesn’t have to leave though, just keep the kissing, cuddling, and flirting to a minimum would you?

Davey got up and started heading back out to his car. He was using it a lot more lately it seemed. He got a text once he was in the car.

_Jack_  
Yeah you got it lol, see you soon.

Davey started the car and drove to Jack’s house for the second time that day. When Davey pulled up this time he was a little nervous. Not only was he having to hide his feelings, like usual, but he also had to endure being around Jack and Crutchie for who knows how long. That same someone also probably knows just how long they'll be able to keep their hands of each other. Crutchie will probably be respectful of Davey’s wishes but the Lord knows Jack has very little self control sometimes. _This'll be fun._

Davey let's himself in, which he normally does when it isn't locked, and checks the living room first. Sure enough, Jack and Crutchie are cuddled up on the couch. He clears his throat as he enters, making his presence known. Crutchie just about jumps five feet in the air. Jack jumps because of Crutchie and Davey feels bad.

“Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you but, hey! I'm here now.” He laughed awkwardly. He only just realized he kind of volunteered to be the third wheel here. He couldn't just leave now though, so he was stuck. Great. 

“Heya Davey! Don't worry about it, I'm naturally jumpy.” He smiled at him and Davey smiled back. He came in further and sat on the couch a few seats away from the two. Crutchie looked at his and Jack's position after a minute, flushed, and pulled them apart looking sheepish. Jack looked confused for a moment but realization soon flashed on his face. Davey felt bad for making them have to separate.

“Don't let me stop you guys!” He didn't really want them to go back to it, but he had to be nice.

“Don't worry Dave, it was getting a little warm anyway. Why don't we put on a movie, huh? Dave, you pick one out I'll make popcorn.” Jack got up and went to the kitchen and Davey went to the movie collection.

“Are we thinking good movie or ‘so bad it's funny’ movie?” Davey was looking at a few, but couldn't pick.

“Hmm, I don't know. Hey Crutch, what do you think?” Jack was just then coming back with a big bowl of popcorn.

“So bad it's funny. I don't think I've ever watched a movie like that before.” Crutchie eagerly grabbed the popcorn bowl from Jack and started munching. Jack and Davey shared a look before they both said the same title at the same time.

“Sharknado.” They all started laughing, and Davey grabbed the movie and put it in before meeting them on the couch once more. He almost forgot about being the third wheel, and it was nice. The movie started and they were all quiet, focused on the movie. Crutchie was reacting the most, this being his first time seeing it. Jack and Davey had probably suffered through it about three times before this point. After their first watch, the other two were showing other people the movie, and now they were up to four times.

A bit of a ways through the movie, Crutchie started yawning. By the end of the movie, he was asleep in Davey's lap. Davey tried stifling his laughs while Jack picked him up to carry him to his room and lay him on his bed. It didn't work, and Crutchie woke up halfway down the stairs.

“Were you just gonna let me sleep? You're supposed to wake me up!” Crutchie hit Jack lightly a few times causing him to laugh. They still went the rest of the way down, Jack still carrying Crutchie. Jack threw him onto his bed and he yelped. 

“You didn't have to suffer through the entire movie with us, I don't think that's very fair.” Jack crossed his arms. Davey stood by his side and did the same. Crutchie gave them a challenging look.

“What are you gonna do?” Crutchie raised an eyebrow. Jack and Davey looked at each other with smirks on their faces. There was only one thing to do.

“Attack!” They yelled together and jumped on the bed, tickling all over Crutchie. Thinking about it, this was sort of like the ritual to really join the team. Every single person on the team got tickled endlessly by one or two other members for something stupid they did. Or just because, sometimes there was no reason. It wasn't purposeful, it just happened that way. Now Crutchie really was a part of the team.

Crutchie was squirming around, trying to get away from them, but failing. They finally stopped when Crutchie’s face was entirely red and he had tears streaming from his cheeks. They laid still and quiet for a long moment, waiting for Crutchie to catch his breath. When he finally did, he looked at them both is some sort of shock.

“You two are ruthless.” Jack and Davey fell back and laughed. Maybe they were, but it was how it went. Punishment came in a tickle fight, no exceptions. Well, sometimes Spot would just punch Race in the shoulder a few times and call it good, but other than that, no exceptions. Race was frequently punched in the shoulder.

Jack, Crutchie, and Davey all just talked and joked together for hours. Davey was about as easy to talk to as Jack was, Crutchie noticed, and he was thankful. Eventually Medda came home.

“Jack, I'm home!” It was very similar to the time she interrupted Jack and Crutchie’s almost kiss.

“In my room, Aunt Medda!” Jack, Crutchie, and Davey were all sitting in a general circle-like shape on Jack's bed. Medda came down and she smiled as she saw Davey and Crutchie.

“Crutchie! Hello dear, and David. Glad to see you're back. Are you two staying for dinner? Or maybe for the night? I'm making chicken!” She smiled at them and they all looked at each other and shrugged.

“I can probably stay the night, if that's alright.” Davey looked at Jack, and he nodded.

“I'm sure my mom won't mind! I'll stay.” Crutchie smiled at Medda and she smiled back.

“Okay, I'll call you all up when it's ready!” Medda climbed back up the stairs, and the boys went back to talking about nonsense. Medda called them up less than an hour later, and by the time they were up she was at the table eating with her laptop open.

“Jack Kelly, you didn't tell me the story Crutchie wrote went up on the website!” Jack's face lit up and he ran behind her to look at the screen too.

“I forgot! Let me see, let me see! I want to see what it says!” Jack sounded more like a child than a teenager at that moment. Crutchie laughed at him. Davey stood off to the side. He was excited to hear what Crutchie wrote, but he didn't think he wanted to get in the way of Jack.

“Give me a moment! Let me read it and I'll hand it over to you! Now dish up your dinner before it gets cold.” Jack groaned but went to the kitchen to get his food, Crutchie and Davey following. They all dished up and when they got to the table, the laptop was turned away from Medda, assumingly for Jack to read. Jack pushed his food to the side to read through it.

“Hey! Listen to this Dave, “I won't only stay focused on Jack Kelly, though. The other players are also very important, like David Jacobs. He's one of the three outfielders, and even on a high school team, they get put to work on the field. David definitely feels like the hidden leader of the team, and he does a great job.” Crutchie must be a pretty good writer if he can make even you sound good.” He got hit over the back of his head for that. By Medda, Davey, and Crutchie. 

“Be nice!” Medda pointed a finger at him, and he pouted. He continued reading until he was done.

“This is really good Crutch! You're such a good writer!” Jack leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He looked to Davey with a sheepish smile, ready to apologize, but he waved his hand in dismissal. They had the right. Jack smiled at him in thanks. They all went back to Jack's room after dinner and saying goodnight to Medda. They don't know who fell asleep first, but they all ended up falling asleep in a pile on Jack's bed, without changing out of their clothes. They were all very uncomfortable the next morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this pretty Davey focused chapter! This chapter was better than the last I hope haha. Follow me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	11. Boyfriends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey get's irritated and Crutchie has something confirmed for him.

Davey felt a lot better about the whole Jack and Crutchie thing after they all hung out on Saturday. That sort of stopped at school on Monday though. He knew he couldn't ask them to not be couple-y at school and in group settings, that would just be mean and ridiculous. That didn't mean it didn't still upset him. Every little kiss Jack pressed to Crutchie's forehead, every kiss Crutchie placed to Jack's cheek. It started irritating Davey, and he was in a bad mood by the end of the day. He felt horrible that it upset him so much, He should be happy that his friends are happy. He really needed to get this under control. He had no right to be angry at them. He sat alone in the back of Race’s van moping on the ride back to his house. He was the last stop anyway, so it didn't matter much. What he wasn't expecting, however, was for Race to park and for him and Spot to follow him out of the van.

“Race? Spot? What's up?” Davey was confused, they always rushed off as soon as they could once everyone was out of the van back top Race’s house. They never stayed at someone’s place, especially not Davey’s. Not that they didn’t like Davey, it just wasn’t a common place for them to hang out.

“You've been irritable and sad all day man, what's up?” Race leaned back against the side of the beat-up van, Spot next to him.

“Nothing. I'm fine.” Davey didn't see the problem. Sure, he was a little upset today but nothing bad enough to need them to have a talk with him.

“You were a little off today at practice, and we can't have you off your game, Mouth. We know it's about Jack.” Davey’s eyes widened and he felt his face get a little warm, so he knew he was blushing. How could Spot know? Did the whole team know? Did Jack know? Oh God, that would be the worst.

“I- I uh, I don't know, I don't know what you're talking about.” Davey was stuttering, a clear sign that he was nervous. He heard Race sigh and Spot groaned.

“We know you like him Davey, it's kind of obvious.” Race crossed his arms. Spot looked like he was getting annoyed. Davey sighed and took a deep breath before talking.

“Okay fine, I like him. He's dating Crutchie though and I can't do anything about it. My best friend that I happen to like is dating another one of my friends so I’m sorry if I’m not totally here right now.” Davey snapped. He didn’t snap at people often, only if they were being so particularly annoying that Davey needed it to stop or if he was super stressed.

“Alright, hey, anger isn’t bad. Anger can be good. If anything, take your anger out at practice, don't let it distract you.” Race went around and climbed back into the van.

“Anger is a great motivator!” Spot smirked at him from the passenger seat and they drove off yelling goodbyes. Davey sighed and went inside, ready to mope around and feel miserable for the time being.

* * *

Crutchie and Jack were sitting in Crutchie’s car after practice and Crutchie was nervous. He just needed to know, he wanted the confirmation. It was probably a weird question to ask, and he didn’t know how Jack would react, but he’d been psyching himself up all day, so he had to ask.

“Hey Jack, can I ask you a question?” Crutchie looked over to Jack, and he cocked his head to the side a little.

“Of course, Crutch. Anything.” Crutchie took a deep breath before continuing.

“This might sound stupid, but like, are we boyfriends? God, that sounds so dumb. I just- You haven't said anything yet, and I was just curious. I was just hoping for confirmation if we are or not-” 

“Crutchie,” Jack cut him off. He leaned in and placed a short soft kiss to Crutchie’s lips, “if you want to be, then yes. I never took into consideration the whole confirming thing, but if you want to then yes.” He chuckled at Crutchie, and Crutchie giggled at him.

“I want to be boyfriends.” Crutchie felt like he was making an already awkward situation worse, but he could manage.

“Okay, well then Crutchie, will you be my boyfriend?” He gave Crutchie the sweetest smile and Crutchie blushed a little. He pushed him a little in a joking sort of motion.

“Of course, you dummy.” He couldn't help but smile though, and he leaned in for another kiss before they had to start heading home. Crutchie was happy he could officially call Jack his boyfriend. Jack had probably been thinking of him like that from the beginning, but Crutchie liked the confirmation. He liked to know that Jack was his boyfriend one hundred percent. It made him feel nice. He was excited to tell his mom.

His mom, after reading the school website, had a talk with Crutchie. Crutchie had allowed Katherine to talk about Crutchie and his sexuality in her story for the paper, and his mom had read through the whole thing. He hadn't come out to her before, too nervous or just didn't think it to be important. They had a bit of a talk, angry words were said that they didn't mean. Crutchie’s mother had always been very religious, and he knew that. After Crutchie locked himself in his room, she went after him and tried to hear it from his perspective. He was all she had, and she didn't want her only son to hate her over something so small. After their talk, she decided that she still loved him and didn't care who he was with. It would take a while to get used to it, but she'd manage. Crutchie was so happy he cried, but then that's when Jack called and invited him over Saturday, so he readjusted himself and went over. Now that he knew his mother was okay with it, he wanted to tell her all about Jack. He saw that she was home again, she'd been saving up for so long while taking longer hours that she was able to sacrifice a few nights to be home when Crutchie got back from school. It was nice, Crutchie thought. He missed hanging out with his mom all the time. He’d always been close with her.

“Mom! You're home again!” Crutchie went through the door and rushed towards her to give her a hug. She stood from her chair to return it.

“I am! How was school today sweetie?” She gave him a kind smile. Everyone always told Crutchie that he had her smile. He sat down at their kitchen table across from the seat she had been sitting in prior. She sat back down as well.

“It was good! You've probably gathered that Jack and I are dating right?” Crutchie was a little hesitant, but he wanted to tell her anyway.

“I figured. He seems like a nice boy, although I've still never met him.” She smirked at him and he laughed. That was right, she still had never spoken to Jack.

“You will, you will. I have some good news though! Jack officially asked me to be his boyfriend today.” He gave her such a big smile, and she was happy for him.

“That's amazing Charlie! Now I really need to meet him.” Crutchie threw a stray pencil on the table at her and she laughed, blocking it so it wouldn't hit her.

“I'm going to go to my room and do some homework!” And with that, Crutchie left down the hall to his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's so hard to not just post these chapters all at once you have no idea I'm so impatient holy God. Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, sorry it's pretty short. Y'all can find me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	12. Jack Crutchie and Davey Watch a Sad Movie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crutchie learns something that should have been obvious and Jack and Davey come over to hang out and they cry watching a movie together.

“Hey Crutchie! Our first playoff game is in a few weeks, you're coming right?” Race ran up to Crutchie on his way into his fifth period class and they walked in together.

“Of course, why wouldn't I? I have to cheer you guys on!” Crutchie sat in what became his new regular seat next to Spot and Race’s.

“More like cheer Jack on, but okay Crutch. Denton having you write about that game too?” They pulled their textbooks and notebooks and started flipping to the right page while they kept talking. Crutchie expected Spot to come in soon after Race, but he still hadn't walked through the door.

“No, not this time. I have to find something else to write about before the next newspaper though, or I'll be stuck writing out and formatting the school calendar events again.” Crutchie rolled his eyes and Race laughed. He didn't even know exactly what that meant, but it didn't sound fun. 

“Well you better figure something out then. That does not sound like fun.” Crutchie sighed, it really wasn't fun. The people in newspaper always tried to make it fun, but it couldn't compare to writing an actual story about something. Crutchie looked at the clock, class would be starting in a few minutes and still no sign of Spot.

“Hey, where's Spot?” Race looked confused for a moment, looked to Spot’s seat, but then he must have remembered because he smiled.

“He skipped.” He shrugged. Spot did it occasionally. Crutchie furrowed his eyebrows.

“Skipped? Why?” Race chuckled at Crutchie, he had obviously never skipped before.

“I mentioned at lunch that I was really wanting one of those new unicorn or whatever drinks from Starbucks, and he said he'd go get one for me. I have the best boyfriend, don't I?” Race placed a hand on his heart and let out an over-dramatic sigh.

“Won't he get in trouble when he comes back in with it though?” There was a pause, “Wait, did you say boyfriend? Are you two dating?” Race looked at Crutchie incredulously. 

“Juniors and Seniors always leave on their free period and it’s not like everyone of the staff knows every student’s free periods so they’ll just think that was his free period and he went to Starbucks. Simple, really. More importantly, you didn't know we were dating? We don't really hide it.” Crutchie looked like he was in deep thought. He thought back to every time he's hung out with them. Yeah, he definitely should have put two and two together, he realizes. They were very clearly a couple. He must have been too focused on Jack. The thought made him blush slightly. Of course he was focused on Jack.

“I just wasn't paying attention I guess.” Crutchie shrugged. Class started then, so they stopped talking.

After school and newspaper, it was finally time to go home. Crutchie was exhausted. Jack seemed to be the exact opposite when he ran over and picked Crutchie up after practice. Crutchie took a minute to squirm out of his arms. Once he was back on the ground he noticed Davey standing off to the side.

“Hey Davey!” Davey, who had been looking at his phone, looked up. He smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

“I was hoping you could drop him off at my house with me. We have a project to do. That isn't a problem is it?” Crutchie chuckled and rolled his eyes

“Jack, it's the same as me dropping just you off. I’m not going any extra distance. Why would I say no?” They started walking again towards Crutchie's car. Davey followed. They all got in the car, Davey in the back this time. 

“I don't know, but thanks Crutch!” He pecked him on the cheek quickly, and they drove out of the parking lot soon after.

“Race told me you said you were coming to our first playoff game.” Jack's voice was hopeful, which Crutchie thought was cute. Of course he was going to the game!

“In fact I am. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't go to your first playoff game?” Jack laughed and nodded.

“Okay, fair enough.” He looked over and smiled at Crutchie. He really did like him a lot. He was knocked out of his trance when Davey spoke up.

“You know how far it is though, right Crutchie?” A turn to look at Davey showed Jack that he was smirking. It was sort of far, he realized.

“No, how far?” Crutchie hadn't really taken into account that it would be far away. He'd definitely still be going, it would just maybe be a little more difficult to plan around now. He wouldn’t miss it though, he couldn’t.

“Only like an hour drive I think, but that's still kind of far for a game.” Davey shrugged. He wasn't exactly sure, but that was about how long it'd take, he guessed.

“Oh, that's fine! An hour away isn't a problem.” Crutchie smiled as they reached Jack's house.

“Bye Crutchie!” Davey got out of the car first, as Jack gave Crutchie a quick kiss before leaving the car.

“See you two tomorrow!” Crutchie drove away after they walked inside.

Crutchie's mom wasn't home this time, but that was okay. She left him a note on the fridge saying she'd been asked to work late again, but she'd try to get home as early as possible. Crutchie poured himself a bowl of cereal, not having the energy to make anything more than that. He ate quickly and went to his room. He decided, even with how tired he was, he needed to do at least some homework. He almost didn't do it, not moving after initially flopping on the bed, but eventually he got up and grabbed his bag. He had to be a responsible student, even if he really just wanted to sleep forever.

After about an hour of doing work Crutchie felt like he could just pass out, but it was only six. He couldn't sleep yet, it would mess up his schedule. Crutchie was almost asleep sitting up when there was a knock. It didn't sound like a knock on the door though. After a few seconds there was another knock and he realized it was on his window. Crutchie’s heart sped up, and he got up and walked slowly to the window. When he pulled back the curtain he jumped, even though he knew someone was going to be there. He wasn't expecting Jack and Davey though. He pulled open the window.

“Why didn't you use the door?” He also wanted to ask why they were there in the first place, but one at a time. This seemed like a more important question for the moment.

“I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen. He does the same to me. He refuses to use my front door.” Crutchie laughed. Of course he would.

“Go over to the door or I'm not letting you in.” Crutchie closed the window and walked towards the front door. When he heard a knock on it, he smiled and opened it.

“Better?” Jack was pouting, and Crutchie rolled his eyes. Davey did too.

“Better. Now do you want to tell me why you're here?” Crutchie led them both to his room and he sat on his bed, Jack flying towards it seconds later, landing face first onto it.

“Jack got bored working on the project and then he dragged me here.” Davey sat next to Jack on the bed and punched his shoulder. There was a muffled cry of pain into Crutchie's blankets.

“Well you're lucky that I was getting bored with homework too, I guess. But why here specifically?” It made sense, Jack getting bored doing the project, Crutchie just wasn't sure why they came to his house. There were plenty other places they could have gone. Or they could have just stayed at Jack’s and watched a movie instead of working.

“Why not? We like hanging out with you, and your house is walking distance. Win-win.” A beat, “and if we stayed at my house Davey wouldn’t have stopped bugging me about doing the project.” Jack sat up and placed his head on Crutchie's shoulder. Davey nodded. That seemed like a Davey thing to do. Crutchie absent-mindedly ran his fingers through his hair, and he sighed in content.

“Well what do you guys want to do then? There isn't much to do here.” Jack and Davey both looked like they were thinking, but neither came up with something. After a moment, Jack shrugged.

“Watch a movie?” Crutchie considered it, and then he shot up. He had a great idea, and they were at his house so they couldn’t object.

“Okay, but you guys barged into my house so I pick the movie. We’re watching Rent, suckers!” Crutchie went out to the living room faster than Jack or Davey had ever seen him go. Jack and Davey shared a confused look before following him out.

“What's Rent?” Crutchie gasped and spun around towards Davey. Davey thought the gasp was a little over dramatic, it wasn't that big of a deal. Jack looked just as confused as Davey though, he didn't know what it was either.

“Only one of my favorite musicals ever! It's so good, but I won't spoil anything. We’re watching it, so get ready to cry.” Crutchie found his DVD of the movie and put it in the DVD player before flopping on the couch. Jack sat to one side of him, Davey on the other. They grabbed the random assortment of blankets on the couch and covered themselves with them.

“I doubt I'll cry, but okay.” Jack smirked at Crutchie, and he rolled his eyes. He'd just have to wait and see. Crutchie found it very hard not to sing along to the songs, but he somehow managed. And by managed, it actually means he hummed along to almost every one of them and couldn’t contain himself during La Vie Boheme. No one can stay quiet during La Vie Boheme.

By the end of the movie, all three of them were sobbing messes. Even Crutchie, who'd already seen the movie probably close to fifty times.

“Crutchie what the hell? You watch that for enjoyment? I'm so sad right now, what the fuck?” Jack was a right mess. Crutchie laughed at him through his tears.

“Seriously what the hell? It was so beautiful in the beginning, so much love. Then it ripped my heart out. This is bullshit.” Crutchie turned his head towards Davey, who was giving him his best glare with tears in his eyes. Crutchie pouted and patted his back. Same with Jack's.

“There, there. It'll be alright.” Jack punched his shoulder lightly. After the immense emotions had calmed down, they just hung out, talked. Crutchie talked a lot about other musicals he wanted to make the two of them watch, they were okay with that idea. They definitely didn’t hate musicals, just never found the push to actually get them to watch any on their own. Watching them with Crutchie seemed like it’d be fun though. He was so passionate about them. Time flew by and before they knew it, the front door was opening. Crutchie's mom entered the living room and stopped.

“Charlie? What are you doing up so late, it's a school night! And who are they?” She didn't sound angry, just surprised. Crutchie's eyes widened and his eyes went back and forth between his mom and the clock on the wall. It was already eleven. 

“Hey mom! I guess we just lost track of time! I'm sorry. This is Jack,” he motioned towards Jack, who waved, “and this is Davey.” Davey waved as well. Crutchie's mom smiled as she looked at the two other boys.

“Oh, well it's nice to meet you both. It is late though, so you should probably leave soon. Don't want your parents getting worried! Be sure to come by again though, hopefully when I’m around maybe.” She looked at Crutchie and her eyes motioned to Jack. He rolled his eyes. “Charlie, you need to get to bed you have to wake up for school in six hours.” She gave him a scolding look and walked towards her room. Crutchie sighed, that could have gone much worse. He was so glad it didn’t. His mom was the best.

“Your mom’s right Crutch, we should get going. Dave’s parents are probably worried sick already. Let's go Davey.” Crutchie walked with them to the door and kissed Jack goodbye before they left. He went back to his room and collapsed onto his bed. He hadn't realized how tired he was. He fell asleep in the clothes he wore that day. He would definitely not be happy about that later, but that was a Future Crutchie problem. Present Crutchie was too tired to care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't post a chapter yesterday and this one is late! I was actually busy for once! I hope this chapter made up for it though! Find me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	13. A Trip to Denny's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack, Crutchie, Davey, Katherine, and Sarah go to Denny's and hang out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, idk why I chose Denny's, I just like Denny's and it was an easy place to write for them all to hang out in so here it is. This chapter kind of sucks ngl, sorry.

Jack and Davey both rode to school in Crutchie's car the next morning. Apparently Sarah told their parents that he was staying over at Jack's when they started to worry about where he was so late. She told them they were working on a project and they lost track of time. It wasn’t a _complete_ lie. She texted him saying that she owed him for covering his ass. Crutchie laughed, that sounded like Sarah. Davey had been confused for a moment when Crutchie mentioned Sarah.

“You know Sarah?” Crutchie raised an eyebrow at him through the mirror.

“She's dating Katherine and is in the photography club. There's no way I wouldn't know her.” A look of realization crossed Davey's face and he laughed at himself. Of course they'd know each other. Thank God he knew Sarah was trustworthy, or he'd be worried she might tell him about his feelings for Jack. He could never imagine Sarah doing that though. They pulled into the school parking lot and all went to their separate classes.

At lunch that day Crutchie ran over to Jack's table after a few minutes and sat in the space next to Jack. He kissed him on the cheek quickly before greeting everyone else.

“Hey Jack, apparently Denton is out today and tomorrow so that means no newspaper! I'll be able to stay and watch you guys practice.” Crutchie had leaned onto Jack's shoulder. That was the position they normally sat in almost anywhere. If it wasn't Crutchie on Jack's shoulder, it was Jack on Crutchie's. They just liked to be touching the other it seemed.

“Well, we actually have practice off today. Something about coach supervising detention today. Friday too, but coach wouldn’t tell us why. Davey and I were going to go hang out and get food somewhere probably,” Jack looked to Davey, “do you mind if Crutch comes along Dave?” Davey looked up from his book and took a second to process what was said.

“I don't mind, as long as he drives.” Davey smirked and Crutchie rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at him.

“Fine, I'll drive. See you guys after school then, bye!” Crutchie then went back over to his normal table. Jack watched him go back to his table and immediately start talking enthusiastically about whatever topic was being talked about. He smiled a little.

“Jack!” He was knocked out of his weird trance by someone yelling his name. He soon found out it was Davey, as he looked expectantly at him.

“Sorry, what?” Davey groaned and rolled his eyes.

“I asked if you knew where we'll be going after school. Sarah texted me, because she's lazy and doesn't want to come over here herself, but she wanted to know if her and Kath could join us. They want to know where we’re going first though.” Jack sighed, he was looking forward to it just being him, Davey, and Crutchie. He didn't want to be a dick though, and he liked Sarah and Katherine.

“Probably Denny’s?” Jack wasn't entirely sure yet, but it was almost always Denny’s. It was just an easy, casual place to hang out and order food with friends. It was meant to be a diner after all. It was either there or the pizza place, but the pizza place was more of a team thing.

“Jack do not get us kicked out of _another_ Denny’s please.” Jack laughed, remembering the last time they got kicked out of a Denny’s. It had been Jack, Davey, Spot, and Race. Jack and Spot got into a heated debate and they got so loud that they were thrown out. That was only a few months ago.

“I won't!” Jack punched his arm and laughed.

“Okay well Sarah says they're coming.” Jack couldn't do anything about it now. It could be fun with all of them. A fun adventure.

* * *

After school all five of them met up in the parking lot at Crutchie's car. Davey was there first, and then Crutchie and Jack came out at the same time.

“I call shotgun!” Davey called when they reached the car.

“What? No! That's not fair! Crutch, tell him that isn't fair!” Jack pouted but Crutchie just smirked in response.

“Sorry Jack, he called it.” Davey gave a little cheer and Jack huffed. Soon Katherine and Sarah came out and walked to Crutchie's car and began climbing in, squishing Jack in the middle.

“Kath, why aren't you guys taking your car?” Katherine and Sarah buckled and Jack glared at Davey in the passenger seat. He turned and stuck his tongue out at him.

“I'm not wasting my gas, who do you think I am?” Crutchie scoffed, but didn't say anything more. He started driving to the nearest Denny’s

When they got to the nearest Denny’s, Jack mentioned that they'd have to go to another one. He was told he was never allowed back inside that one. Crutchie felt like he deserved an explanation for that, but decided not to ask. The second one they went to was fine though, and still wasn't that far so it was okay. Things generally weren’t too far when you lived in a busy city. They all filed out of the car and made their way to the door, Jack grumbling about how cramped he was in the back. Once inside, it didn’t take long for them to be seated. They got a small booth, Katherine and Sarah sitting on one side with Crutchie and Davey on the other. Jack was going to sit next to Crutchie, but Davey sat down in the booth first. Jack had to take the chair on the end of the table, but he was still close to Crutchie so he guessed it was alright. Everyone ordered their drinks and then they looked at the menu.

“I’m thinking of getting some of these banana caramel pancakes! What are you guys getting?” It had been a few minutes of silent looking, and the last people still looking were Crutchie and Sarah.

“I’m getting a bacon and avocado cheeseburger.” Katherine took a sip of her raspberry tea that had come a few minutes prior.

“I’m going with the sticky bun pancakes.” Jack opened up and checked his menu again to make sure he got the name right.

“Ooh! You’re gonna have to let me try a bite of that, I was going between those ones and the ones I’m getting.” Jack rolled his eyes but nodded and smiled at him. He couldn’t say no to Crutchie.

“I’m getting the loaded veggie omelette.” Jack looked at Davey with a disgusted face. Davey raised an eyebrow.

“What? It’s good!” Jack held up his hands in defense and then looked to Sarah.

“Okay Sarah you’re the last one, you know what you want yet?” Sarah let out a sigh and put down her menu.

“I think I’m just gonna go with the blueberry pancakes.” She closed her menu and they waited for the waiter to come back to take their order.

“Am I the only one getting something that isn’t breakfast?” The other people of the group looked around before nodding with murmurings of simple “yeah”s.

“You’re the outsider babe. Sorry you don’t understand the wonders that are breakfast food.” Sarah put her arm around Katherine and patted her shoulder. Katherine scoffed, but didn’t say anything. The waiter came around soon after and they all ordered. It was a bit of a wait after that but they filled it with talking.

“So Katherine, why is Denton out today and tomorrow?” Crutchie hadn’t been told why, he’d just been told he wouldn’t be at school.

“Oh, we weren’t told. His sub just told us that he was out. The class made some weird theory having to do with someone dying I think? I wasn’t listening.” She shrugged. The table laughed at how absurd it was.

“Most student theories about teachers being gone are either something to do with spies or death, sometimes both, so that makes sense.” Davey saw the waiter come towards their table with food. He set down food in front of everyone but Katherine.

“I’m sorry, it’s taking a little longer. Your food will be ready momentarily.” Then the waiter scuttled off again. Katherine pouted, and Sarah kissed her cheek. Davey made a ‘blegh’ sort of noise.

“It’s because you didn’t get breakfast food Kath!” Crutchie was already cutting into his pancakes. Katherine flipped him off. Davey dug in pretty quickly as well and started shoveling food into his mouth. Jack laughed at him, causing him to look up and flush a little. He finished his bite and spoke.

“What? I don’t eat the school food because it’s gross and normally I have a lunch but I wasn’t home this morning to make one so I’m starving.” The look on Jack’s face was weird, Kath noticed. It was different. It only took her a few moments to realize why though, because Jack soon looked at Crutchie the same way. Kath’s eyes widened. Does Jack like Davey too? Katherine took a sip of her tea because turning to Sarah.

“Sarah, I need to talk to you for a second. Come with me to the bathroom.” Sarah looked confused but followed her anyway. The boys seemed to barely notice them leaving.

“What is it Kath? Everything alright?” They walked into the bathroom, and Katherine made sure nobody was in there. It wouldn’t have been horrible for someone to hear, she just didn’t like talking in quiet places around others often. It was an awkward situation to be in.

“I think Jack likes Davey.” Katherine looked Sarah in the eyes, and Sarah just looked more confused than before.

“What, no. He likes Crutchie. What do you mean?” Sarah hadn’t noticed anything, but apparently Katherine had. That’s why she was the reporter, she guessed.

“Did you not see the way Jack looked at Davey? He looked at him the exact same way he looks at Crutchie. I think he likes them both.” Katherine brought her bottom lip between her teeth, something she did when she was thinking. Sarah always thought it was cute.

“Both of them? He’s dating Crutchie though, I don’t understand.” Katherine huffed, Sarah responding the same.

“I don’t understand either. Should I tell Crutchie? I don’t want him getting hurt.” Sarah’s eyes widened and she waved her hands frantically.

“Don’t tell Crutchie. It may be hard, but trust me. If I know Jack at all, he’d never hurt Crutchie like that. Telling him would only upset him and it wouldn’t do any good. We should just keep this to ourselves. Okay? If what you're saying is true, I'm not even sure if Jack knows he likes Davey. That boy is so clueless.” Katherine sighed, but nodded. They went back out to the table after that and finished their food. Once everyone finished their food they all slouched in their seats. Davey groaned and pouted.

“Ate too much?” Crutchie turned his head and looked at Davey with a smirk. Davey continued to pout but brought a hand up and traced a finger down his cheek like a tear. Crutchie laughed at him.

“It's not even four yet, do you guys wanna go somewhere else to hang out?” Jack was stood up, getting ready to go. Sarah and Kath were getting ready to stand as well. They looked at each other and shrugged.

“Where you thinking?” Sarah raised an eyebrow at Jack. If it was anywhere where they could get in trouble, she wasn't letting herself or Davey anywhere near it.

“There's a park not far from here, I was thinking we could just hang around there for a bit.” Everyone thought for a second before agreeing. They paid and went out to Crutchie's car and clambered in. Jack called shotgun this time, and Davey huffed. He was squished between Sarah and Katherine this time, and Crutchie pulled out of the parking lot.

“You have to tell me where I'm going Jack, I don't know where this park is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr @bentylershook


	14. Arguments in the Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group of 5 go to a park and get into an argument about Halloween movies.

They were hanging out at the park for a little while. When they first got there it was empty. Not surprising, it was a Wednesday and the weather wasn’t too great. Still, they stayed and hung out for a while. Jack and Sarah raced for the swings, even though there were enough for everyone anyways. There were six swings in total. Jack, Crutchie, and Davey sat on one end. Jack was on the edge, Davey in the middle, Crutchie on the other side. Katherine and Sarah sat with an empty swing between them and the boys. This was only because Sarah also wanted an end swing for whatever crazy reason, and Katherine just sat next to her, leaving an empty swing between her and Crutchie.

They weren’t really swinging either, just swaying a little and talking. It wasn’t different to the conversations they had with the rest of the team in Jack’s room not too long ago. Talking about random topics as they came up. They started on school, because it was an easy topic to start a conversation, but somewhere along the line it melded into books, then movies, then video games, and eventually they started talking about halloween.

“Okay hands down best halloween movies have to be the Halloween Town movies! Duh!” They were all currently battling it out over best movies for the halloween season. Sarah was adamant in her choice.

“Have you even seen the Twitches movies? They are obviously the best.” Crutchie honestly couldn’t believe it. Who didn’t think the Twitches movies were the best.

“You guys are only focusing on the Disney channel movies! Think about other places. Specifically animation. Coraline is the best halloween movie. Nobody can disagree!” Katherine loved animation, and the Laika company was always a favorite. She’d loved Coraline since the first time she watched it.

“That was isn’t even based around halloween. It doesn’t count.” It was only petty arguments like this where Sarah and Katherine would disagree, but Sarah still wasn’t backing down from her Halloween Town statement.

“It counts! It may not be based around halloween but it’s creepy and amazing and I love it dearly.” Katherine crossed her arms and turned her back to Sarah as she pouted.

“If we’re talking Coraline. A movie by that same company, Laika, is Paranorman. Now that’s a good movie. The kid sees ghosts. Ghosts!” Davey finally added to the conversation. Crutchie looked towards Jack.

“Jack, you haven’t said anything. What’s your favorite halloween movie?” 

“You guys are all lame. You’re supposed to watch scary movies for halloween.”

“Sure. That’s not what we’re talking about right now though, Jackass. What’s your favorite movie made for halloween.” Katherine pursed her lips. Katherine was always a no-bullshit type person. Especially with Jack.

“Then I’d have to go with Sarah on this one. Halloween Town movies are classics.” Sarah pumped her fists into the air in celebration as everyone else let out sounds of either disapproval or disgust.

“Really? Halloween Town over Coraline?”

“And Twitches?”

“And Paranorman?”

“Yeah. Sorry, it’s just the best. Also Dave, what the hell is a Paranorman?”

“It’s an animated film made by the same people who made Coraline. It’s great, I can’t believe you haven’t seen it. I’m totally making you watch it this weekend.” Jack threw his head back and groaned, but agreed. He couldn’t imagine he could really say no.

“It’s getting late, let’s head home.” Katherine stood up from her swing looking at her phone. After checking the time for themselves, everyone agreed and they went to the car. It was a quick drive back to the school, Jack got trapped in the back again and grumbled the whole time though. When they got back to the school, Kath, Sarah, and Davey all got out of the car. Davey thought it’d be stupid to not ride home with his sister, it was easier. It left Jack and Crutchie alone, and Jack climbed back up to the front seat. He leaned over and kissed Crutchie quickly.

“You said you’re coming to practice tomorrow, right? Because Mr. Denton is out?” Crutchie started pulling out of the parking lot.

“Yeah! I mean might as well. I have nowhere else to go after school, and I have to wait somewhere to drive you home, so sure.” Crutchie smiled. He was happy to hang out with Jack so much during the week. Crutchie had never been one of those kids who’d hang out after school. He figured he didn’t really have time, doing newspaper and all. Also, his friend group weren’t really people who’d go out to hang out anyway. He liked it though, spending time with all these people. It was nice. Crutchie dropped Jack off with a kiss before going home. His mom was gone again, and having eaten already only a few hours earlier, he grabbed a small snack in the form of a pack of poptarts and went to his room to work on some homework. He actually had quite a bit so he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to go to bed at a decent time. His phone went off though, and when he saw it was a message from Jack, he knew he was doomed.

_Jack_  
Heya Crutch! Davey didn’t realize he didn’t have your number. Mind if I give it to him?

Crutchie hadn’t realized he hadn’t given it to Davey either. He definitely didn’t mind giving it to Davey, it just hadn’t crossed his mind he guessed. He shot back a quick reply.

_Crutchie_  
Go ahead I don’t mind.

The next notification Crutchie got was from a new number, which by the message he could only assume was Davey.

_Unknown Number_  
Aside from Paranorman I’d have to agree with you and say that the Twitches movies are the best tbh

Crutchie laughed. Of course Twitches were the best movies. Twin Witches. Amazing. After that text, they wet back and forth for a while. Just texting randomly, like their conversations in the park. 

_Davey_  
The moon is just so cool you know? It’s so big and bright, even if the brightness is only a reflection of the sun’s light. The facts don’t really matter though. It’s just beautiful. I love space so much.

Before Crutchie even knew it, it was after ten and any hope of him going to bed at a reasonable time and doing homework was out the window.

_Crutchie_  
Space is really cool, I love reading about it. It’s getting late though, we should head to bed. See you at school. Night Davey.

Crutchie decided he’d just have to ask people to copy off of them tomorrow. Crutchie was well liked enough and persuasive, so it would hopefully work out. As he changed into his pajamas and got into bed he heard his phone go off again.

_Davey_  
Shit! How did it get so late? Well, goodnight Crutchie.

Crutchie felt… weird. Very smiley and happy. Simply because of Davey texting him goodnight. He didn’t get it, but he kept smiling anyway. No point in forcing yourself to stop smiling, even if you don’t know why you’re doing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Find me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	15. Crutchie At Practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crutchie goes to practice, Jack is a nerd, and Davey is just Davey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had no idea what to put as the title or the summary so, sorry.

The day was slow. Crutchie just wanted the day to be over so he could watch the boys practice. It wasn't the nicest weather out and was pretty cold, but he liked watching them. He just wished the day would go faster. He was only in his third period and he just wanted the day to _be over already_. His third period was boring too, so that really didn't help his situation. Lucky for him, he was just meant to be writing notes out of his textbook today, and he could ask Kath for them later. She had this class too, just at a different time. She let him copy her notes alot, so it was fine. He just had to look like he was working, so he started doodling in his notebook. He started doodling hearts and sunflowers first, but then moved to random lines and swirls. He wrote Jack's name a couple of times too.

When lunch finally rolled around Crutchie just wanted to take a nap until the school day was over. Or just take a nap in general. He decided to at least get some work done last night rather than need to copy everything from other people, but that kept him up way past midnight. He was really tired, but he trekked on. When he sat at the table with Kath and the Gang, he slumped over the table and sighed. He could hear Kath chuckle at him.

“Problem, Crutchie?” Finch poked at the top of his head, causing Crutchie to sit up and give him the stink-eye.

“After I got back home yesterday I was going to do homework but I got distracted texting with Davey until about ten. Then I finally tried to do the homework, but that kept me up well past midnight. I’m exhausted.” 

“Wait, texting with Davey? Not Jack? That's a shocker.” Katherine was smirking at him and he slapped her arm a little.

“Yes, Davey. We just talked about random stuff, basically continuing the conversation from the park. It was nice, actually.” Katherine held her hands up in mock defense.

“Okay, okay! Well, maybe don't do that again. You look miserable.” He really did. His eyes were drooping and it looked like he could fall asleep sitting up.

“I am miserable.”

“Come on! You can make it through the day! I believe in you!” In response to Katherine’s little pep talk the table whisper-cheered Crutchie's name over and over again. Crutchie rolled his eyes.

When it was finally time to go to baseball practice, Crutchie was a little more awake. He actually fell asleep in his fifth period class. Race was going to mess with him, but Spot had seen how tired he'd been and stopped him. Somehow the teacher didn't catch Crutchie sleeping, but that was good. Spot woke him up a few minutes before the bell rang. He was thankful for his nap.

Now that he was at practice though, he was happy to be out of school. He still wasn't entirely sure what to do besides watch the boys the whole time which, honestly got a little boring after a while; So he took out his journal and doodled some more. He started from one corner of the page and moved out. He started just drawing tiny circles clustered together. It was pretty time consuming and it kept him busy, so he was fine with it. Halfway through practice the guys were given a break and Davey came over to Crutchie before Jack did.

“Heya Crutch.” Davey flopped down next to Crutchie and looked over at his page. He had made a good amount of progress, but he definitely wasn't close to covering the page.

“Hey Davey.” Crutchie’s response was a little absent; he was focusing on his doodles.

“Jack's coming over tomorrow to hang out and we’re gonna watch Paranorman. You wanna come?” Jack came and joined them then, sitting on the other side of Crutchie. He stopped doodling.

“Huh? Oh, yeah sure! That sounds fun.” Once Crutchie had processed what was asked of him, he smiled. He liked hanging out with Jack and Davey, and it felt nice being invited by Davey this time. He couldn't explain it really, but it was a nice feeling.

“What are my two favorite people talking about?” Jack cut into the conversation. Crutchie laughed and gave him a small peck on the cheek.

“Davey invited me to hang out with you two to watch Paranorman tomorrow.” Jack looked surprised for a moment, but he smiled. He didn't expect Davey to invite him, or even be the one to first think of inviting him, but he was definitely okay with that idea.

“Have you not seen Paranorman either or something?” Jack smirked down at Crutchie but he raised an eyebrow in response.

“Have you never seen Paranorman? It's so good, how?” Crutchie furrowed his eyebrows at him. Davey laughed on the other side of him.

“See? I'm not the only one who likes that movie. Now we definitely have to watch it.” Davey and Crutchie high-fived and Jack pouted.

“I wouldn't have given Davey your number if I knew you were going to gang up on me.” He crossed his arms and pouted. Crutchie leaned over and pecked his cheek before moving back and leaning on Davey.

“You're gonna have to get used to it, Jack. Dave and me are the new power couple and we’re coming after you.” Dave wrapped his arms around Crutchie and they both laughed. Crutchie felt weird saying that. Not weird meaning bad but...weird. He couldn’t put his finger on it. It was just a silly joke, but something about it just felt weird. It upset him that he couldn’t figure it out.

“Wow Dave, I can't believe you stole my boyfriend. How could you?” Jack said in mock anger. Davey was stifling his giggles coming up with a comeback.

“What can I say, Jack? I guess I'm just irresistible.”

“It's true. I mean, have you seen him?” Jack scoffed and looked at Crutchie incredulously.

“Crutchie! How dare you, you're tearing this family apart!” He then stormed away back to the dugout and all three burst out laughing. Davey removed his arms from around Crutchie but he found he didn't want to move. He was warm, he told himself. It was cold out, and Davey was warm, that's it. He really needed to figure this out. It was weird. He didn't understand what was happening.

Jack came back a moment later, Race following him this time. He gave Davey a look, but Crutchie didn't understand. Probably a thing of theirs before he came along, he figured. Jack sat back down next to Crutchie, but Race stayed standing.

“Hey Race, what's up?” Race had been looking off to the side, looking a little angry, so Crutchie decided to say something.

“What? Oh, oh nothing. Spot’s just being an asshole again so I wanted to get away from him.” He came over and sat on the other side of Davey.

“What's he doing? You want to talk about it?” Crutchie leaned forward a bit so he could see Race around Davey.

“I don't know, he's just being his normal asshole self. Telling me my pitching was off and that I need to fix it and shit. My pitching was fine, he's just being a jackass.” Race grumbled and crossed his arms. Crutchie smirked at him.

“I get it, you're both pretty stubborn people. I don't think he meant to be an ass though, it probably just came out that way. He was probably just thinking it was a little lacking today and wanted to help?” Race laughed bitterly.

“Well what he said was, ‘Hey Higgins, your pitching today was ass. Get your shit together.’ So I don't think that's likely.” Crutchie's smile fell.

“Well I'm sorry, maybe he was just being a dick.” Crutchie shrugged and Race laughed. It was time for the guys to go back on the field.

Practice went on, Crutchie continued to doodle, and it was over pretty quickly. Or it seemed so, to Crutchie at least. He got caught in his doodles again so it went by pretty quick. When practice was over, Jack and Davey went with Crutchie to his car. He figured he was driving Davey either over to Jack's again or to his house, but he didn't mind. Spending more time with Davey was fun, so why not?

“Your pitching was better Race. Sometimes you just need a little something to get you there. And sometimes that thing is me being an ass.” Crutchie heard the passing conversation of Spot and Race on their way to the parking lot. Well, he couldn't very well not hear it. They were pretty loud.

“You shit! I was actually mad at you, and you were just trying to get me there? Ugh, I hate you.” In response to that Spot just kissed Race against the passenger side door of Races van.

“You love me.”

Crutchie really couldn't figure out how he couldn't tell they were a couple before. He must have been really blind to not see it because wow, now they were making out against the car just in front of everyone. There were a lot of yells from the guys though.

“You're literally our ride home, come on!”

“I would like to get home TODAY please.”

Crutchie found it funny. He got into his car and unlocked it for Jack and Davey. They climbed in, Jack in the passenger seat and Davey in the back.

“Oh, I guess I didn't ask you for a ride, did I? Sorry. Well, with Race and Spot going at it again, it'd be cool if you could drive me home?” Davey smiled at him sheepishly. He'd kind of forgotten that he wasn't just expected to get a ride from Crutchie like with Race.

“No worries, I just figured I'd be taking you to Jack's again or to your house, not a big deal. You're gonna have to tell me where to go though, I don’t know where I’m heading this time.” Crutchie pulled out of the parking lot, Race’s van still not having moved an inch. Davey gave him instructions to his house, which wasn't too far from Jack's anyway, and dropped him off.

“Later Davey! See you tomorrow!” Crutchie was sad to say goodbye. He really liked hanging out with Davey. Davey was just fun to be around. After he dropped off Davey he drove to Jack's house to drop him off too.

“I hope you know that I'm actually really happy you and Dave are getting along. It makes me happy.” They were holding their foreheads together, not separating too far after a kiss.

“Why wouldn't we get along? Davey's great.” Jack grinned wider at his response before placing one more quick kiss to his lips and getting out of the car.

“Bye Jack!” 

When he got home his mom once again was gone. He was okay with it though. He'd seen her a lot recently and it's not like he wouldn't like to see her more, it had been nice to actually see her at all, but he knew she had to get back to working more again. He made himself some quick sandwiches and ate before heading to his room. He was going to do homework and sleep at a reasonable time if it killed him. His phone went off, but he ignored it and muted his phone to work. He actually finished within two hours, which he didn't think possible, but was grateful. It wasn't even seven yet, so he grabbed his phone and checked notifications. He had a few texts from Jack.

_Jack_  
Hey I'm bored

_Jack_  
:(

_Jack_  
Are you doing homework or something? Davey is too. 

_Jack_  
Damn

Crutchie laughed at him before sending a quick reply.

_Crutchie_  
I was doing homework, but I'm done now.

He also saw that he had a text from Davey, so he checked that to.

_Davey_  
Is Jack texting you nonstop too? He won't stop texting me and I just want to study.

Crutchie once again laughed at him. Crutchie knew he had homework too, at least in the class they shared. He should've been doing that instead of being bored.

_Crutchie_  
Yeah he was texting me. I was doing homework so I had my phone muted though so I only just now got the texts.

Crutchie's phone went off and he had a new text from Jack.

_Jack_  
Oh thank God. I was dyin Crutch.

Crutchie shook his head, and he saw he got a text from Davey, but responded to Jack first, before checking it.

_Crutchie_  
You could have, oh idk, done your own homework?

He checked the text from Davey.

_Davey_  
That… would have been smart to do. Hm. Maybe then I wouldn't have been annoyed by him every other minute. Ugh.

It went back and forth like that. Crutchie getting a text from and responding to Jack and then the same thing for Davey. Just back and forth, over and over. It was fun though, holding two separate conversations as they both went in their own directions.

_Crutchie_  
It's like it was perfect that Jack was named Jack. I mean, he is a jackass, so it works.

_Davey_  
Oh my God, that actually made me laugh. It's late, hopefully I didn’t disturb anyone. We should head to bed.

Crutchie checked the time, it was getting late. He decided that would be a good idea. Jack had fallen asleep not too much earlier than that. He did say he wanted to go to bed at a reasonable time, and ten was pretty reasonable he thought, so that worked.

_Crutchie_  
You're right. Goodnight Davey!!!

_Davey_  
Night Crutch

Crutchie went to bed with a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Things get increasingly gay from here so stay tuned! Find me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	16. Fire Alarm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Davey has a panic attack and Crutchie gets angry at two unsuspecting guys.

“Jack I will not drive out of my way to pick up snacks before we go to Davey’s. We don't need them.” 

Crutchie was in his second class of the day, Math. It also happened to be the class that he shared with Jack. They were meant to be solving some equations in their textbook but they were allowed to talk with other students. They were more interested in their conversation than work, however.

“But we do need them Crutchie! Please?” Jack stuck out his bottom lip and pouted at him. Crutchie scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“We don't! Unless you can give me gas money, we aren't going.” Crutchie turned back to his work, mostly pretending to be doing it because he still didn't really want to. Jack perked up in his seat.

“I can give you gas money! So can we go? Please?” He pouted again and Crutchie sighed.

“Fine.” Jack grinned and leaned over to give Crutchie a kiss on the cheek. The teacher looked up and cleared her throat, causing Jack to move away and slump in his seat. He hated the PDA policy the school had. It didn't ever seem to apply to the kids practically having sex with their clothes on in the hallways though. It was bullshit.

At lunch, Crutchie sat with the baseball team. He did that occasionally, but he mostly spent lunch with the newspaper crew. He decided to hang at their table mostly to be able to talk with Jack and Davey more, but also because he hadn’t done it in a while and had barely talked to any other of the guys aside from Spot and Race. He enjoyed the whole team, he just didn’t talk with them as much. He liked talking with Romeo about musicals, and Specs too as Romeo always roped him into the conversations. He enjoyed talking with Mush and Blink a lot too. Mush enjoyed talking about his music, and Crutchie actually listened to a few of the artists he recommended. He had good music taste. He enjoyed joking around with Albert and Elmer too. Just, the whole team was great to hang out with, but he never got to hang out with them unless they were all hanging out as a group. He was currently in a deep conversation with Romeo and Specs about a newer musical that’s come out.

“You’ve watched the bootleg, right?” Crutchie aimed the question more at Romeo, but also Specs. He wanted to know if Romeo had forced him to cry with him. Crutchie had also recently figured out they were dating too. They were definitely less obvious than Spot and Race though, so they didn’t expect him to know.

“Of course I’ve watched the bootleg! Specs watched it with me. I’d been told it made you cry so I wanted moral support. We were sobbing messes at the end though, so moral support wasn’t really an option.” All three of them laughed. Specs remembered that, it was the most he’d cried at a musical. Romeo had been crying even more though. He told him afterwards that after a while, he couldn’t even see the screen because he was crying so hard.

“Ugh, I watched it alone. I was a right mess,” Just then, there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see Jack behind him, “Jack, I’m trying to talk about the greatest new musical of our time what do you want.” 

“I was talking with Davey about us coming over today, we want to figure out what’s all going down.” He smirked down at him when he sighed. Crutchie smiled when Jack kissed him on the forehead though.

“Ugh fine. Romeo, we need to seriously have a musical marathon. Between my collection and your’s it would be a blast.” Romeo quickly nodded his head and turned to Specs, presumably to have their own conversation. Crutchie turned back towards where Jack and Davey were.

“Okay so Jack says we’re getting snacks before going to my house? Assuming I’m coming with you, that is.” Davey gave Crutchie an awkward smile and Crutchie laughed.

“Dave I don’t mind, really. Jack says he’s giving me gas money, which he better, and we’re all heading to your house. It’s fine.” Davey nodded. He normally didn’t like people calling him Dave except for Jack, but he was okay with Crutchie calling him by that name. He never corrected anyone if they did call him by that name, he didn’t care that much, but still. It was… different this time.

“Alright. So where will we be heading?”

“That’s for Jack to decide.”

“Figured we’d hit up Hell-Mart or something.” Crutchie raised an eyebrow at Jack.

“Hell-Mart? Is that supposed to mean Wal-Mart?” Jack and Davey laughed.

“Jack had a job at a Wal-Mart last summer, and they were the worst. So now we all call it Hell-Mart.” Davey shrugged. They had accepted it at that point, and hadn’t realized it might have sounded weird to someone who didn’t know.

“I’ll definitely have to tell you some stories sometime. Now focus. We hit up Hell-Mart after school, then head to Davey’s. Then we, well, I guess we can figure stuff out from there, can’t w-” Jack was then cut off by the fire alarm. The entire lunch room stopped. They hadn’t had a lunch room drill yet and nobody had been informed about it at all. Looking around, it looked like the staff hadn’t been informed either. After a lot of yelling into walkie-talkies, they started having kids exit the building one table at a time to try and keep it organized. By the time they got to the baseball team’s table, Davey wouldn’t budge.

“David Jacobs. You need to exit the building. As far as we know this is not a drill. We need you out for your own safety.” Davey had his knees brought all the way up to his chin, and the security guard yelling at him wasn’t helping. Crutchie came and sat next to him. He could hear his silent whimpers and saw the tears starting to fall. He was having a panic attack.

“Sir, sir please. I know you need him to move but yelling won’t help. He’s having a panic attack. Yelling will only make it worse.” Crutchie looked up and spoke to the man, cutting off more of his yelling. The guy stopped yelling, thankfully, and just moved to another table. After hearing Davey was having a panic attack, Jack rushed to the other side of Davey.

“Dave, buddy, it’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. I’m sure it’s just a drill. You know sometimes they don’t inform staff about them, a lot of the times teachers are surprised too. It’ll be alright. It’s just a drill.” Jack spoke to him gently, trying to calm him down. Crutchie rubbed his back and ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t know if it helped, but it’s what normally helped Crutchie, so he went with it.

“I know it’s loud, but it’ll be okay. Focus on my voice, just my voice. Now look at me, and focus on me. Okay? Everything will be alright. Breathe along with me, you can do it. Inhale, hold, exhale. You got it, you’re doing it. You’ll be okay, I promise. Everything is okay.” Crutchie was just trying to help Davey the same way his mom or someone else would help him when he had panic attacks, but it seemed to be working. He was beginning to calm down. He finally calmed down enough to uncurl himself from the ball he was in. Crutchie wiped the tears away from his eyes too. Once he was fully calm, he took one final deep breath before talking.

“I’m sorry guys. I don’t, I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.” Jack was about to speak up to respond, but Crutchie beat him to it.

You don’t need to apologize Davey. Panic attacks are always sudden and can be triggered by random things. You had no control over it. There is no need to be sorry. We’re just glad you’re okay now.” Davey blushed a little but nodded. Jack nodded too.

“Well then I guess, thank you. For helping calm me down. You especially Crutchie. Jack’s helped me through a few before, but you were a really great help. Thank you guys.”

“It really wasn’t a problem, Davey. But yeah, how did you know what to do Crutch?” Jack turned to Crutchie. They stood up to finally head outside, and they each put an arm around Davey. They didn’t need to, he was okay now, but they wanted to be safe.

“I’ve had many of my own before. I just did what people normally do to help me. Rub my back and run their hands through my hair to comfort and ground me, have me focus on them instead of what caused the attack, say calming gentle things, that sort of thing. I figured if it helped me it could help Davey, so I tried it.” Crutchie shrugged. They were finally outside, and they met up with the rest of the team.

“Yeah, thanks Crutchie. What you did really helped.” Before they could talk more about it, the whole team turned to them.

“Davey, are you okay? What happened?”

“Davey, you alright?”

“Yo Davey, you good?” They all were asking him if he was okay and he was starting to get crowded. Crutchie nicely asked if they could all be quiet a moment and move back. They listened.

“He’s fine, he’s okay. He just had a panic attack, but it’s okay now. He’s calm. Just don’t crowd him, let the boy have some space.” Davey gave Crutchie another smile and let out a sigh of relief. If they had kept crowding him he probably would have gone back into a ball again. They fell into normal conversation after that, just continuing their previous ones really. It was maybe five to ten minutes before the principle came out.

“Everyone can go back inside. There was no fire and there was no drill. One of the students thought it would be funny to pull the alarm as a joke. You may all go back to your classes or your lunch break. You still have ten minutes. Please enter the building quickly and quietly. Thank you.” The principle then went back inside with most of the other staff members. Some stayed outside to ensure all the students went back inside. Race and Spot high fived quickly.

“Did you guys just high five? What for?” Jack raised an accusing eyebrow at them.

“We maybe know the guy that pulled the alarm.” Race stifled his laugh. Crutchie didn’t think it was too funny though, and whipped around as fast as his crutch would allow.

“You knew he was going to pull the alarm? And you didn’t tell the group? Like I get that you wouldn’t want to tell too many people because someone could snitch and you’d get in trouble, but really? I mean, that’s a stupid joke anyway, but you gave Davey a panic attack! That’s no laughing matter!” Crutchie didn’t realize he’d get so heated over it. He just didn’t understand how they could possibly be laughing at something that caused his friend distress. Jack nudged Crutchie’s arm, as did Davey. They just wanted to move on and have Crutchie move on too. It wasn’t working though.

“Crutch, it’s fine. I’m fine. It wasn’t a big deal. Come on.” Davey tried to convince him to move along, it didn’t help.

“No! It’s not okay to laugh at something that caused a friend distress! It’s not funny… it’s not…” He faded off, losing his power in favor of making himself upset more than anything. Race and Spot looked at each other nervously. Not only had they never seen that side of Crutchie, they definitely felt bad now. They hadn’t realized something was that wrong.

“Jeez I’m, I’m really sorry Crutch. We didn’t mean to make Davey or you upset or anything. Well don’t I just feel like a dick.” Race pursed his lips and looked anywhere but at Crutchie.

“Apologize to Davey if anything, not me.” Crutchie said before turning back around and walking away from not only Spot and Race, but Davey and Jack too. They raced after him.

“Woah, Crutchie, slow down. Are you okay? What’s up?” Jack caught up to him first and put an arm around his shoulders.

“I’m fine. Just upset, is all.”

“Crutchie! Where did that come from? I’ve never seen that side of you.” Davey was quick to catch up and they were soon in the building.

“I get angry when I defend my friends.” Crutchie shrugged. He did get very angry when defending friends. He remembers once, a new kid tried joining newspaper and started saying sexist things to Katherine so he called him out for it in front of everyone, and then he never came back to newspaper. Katherine still talks about it sometimes.

“Well, thank you Crutchie. I really didn’t see a problem with it, but you being so willing to stick up for me was really nice.” Davey blushed a little again and Crutchie smiled.

“Anything for you, Dave.” When they got back to the table they just got rid of their trash and waited to be able to go to their next classes. Crutchie had his next class with Spot and Race, he hoped him having yelled at them wouldn’t make it awkward.

It was a little awkward. Spot and Race wouldn't stop apologizing for a few minutes. It took a while for Crutchie to convince them that it was okay, he wasn't mad. They'd just never seen him like that before and thought they'd like, ruined their entire friendship forever. Soon enough though, class was over, they both knew they were all cool, and Crutchie couldn't wait for school to be over. 

When Crutchie’s sixth period finally ended, he went straight for his car, intending to meet Jack and Davey there. He was really glad they had practice off again today. He would have been fine with watching practice again, but now they had more time to hang out. It took a bit for Jack and Davey to come out of the school, but they finally came out together and walked to Crutchie’s car.

“Hey Crutch! Ready to head to Hell-Mart?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fucking- I just love Crutchie standing up for his friends and getting angry. Hell yeah Crutchie! So uh, hope you enjoyed this gay as hell chapter! Find me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	17. Paranorman! Also, Davey has a Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack, Crutchie, Davey, and Sarah watch Paranorman. Davey also has a realization about something and doesn't know how to deal with it entirely.

They were almost kicked out of that Wal-Mart. Jack claims they were doing nothing wrong, just being a little loud. Davey would say otherwise. They were going to be thrown out, until Davey convinced the guy to let them pay and they'd leave quietly. They went to the register and paid for their snacks and junk food before heading back out to the parking lot and to Crutchie's car. Davey sat in the back again with their bags of stuff and Jack was cracking up while everyone got buckled. Crutchie turned to Jack.

“Jack Kelly I cannot believe you almost just got us kicked out of Wal-Mart.” Jack just laughed more. Eventually Davey joined, and then Crutchie. It took a minute for everyone to calm down and stop laughing after that. They just decided to leave it, no more to the conversation than a shrug from everyone. It was a longer drive than it would've been from school because the Wal-Mart they went to was the complete opposite direction. They still got there soon enough, everything was fairly close to everything else in the city. Crutchie was definitely hold Jack on his word to give him that gas money though.

“Huh, Katherine isn't here. She normally comes by on Fridays. Weird.” They pulled up to Davey's house, Crutchie parking just on the side of the road in front of it. They all got out, Davey holding the snacks. When they all walked in, Davey’s mother looked surprised.

“David! What's all this? I thought only Jack was coming over?” Davey’s eyes widened, realizing he hadn't told his mom he invited Crutchie too.

“I'm sorry mom! I totally spaced on telling you! This is Crutchie, er, Charlie. I invited him over too. Hope that's okay?” He gave her a big smile, and she laughed.

“It's fine. Just stop forgetting to tell me these things! It's nice to meet you Charlie. Welcome to our home.” She turned to Crutchie and nodded at him. He nodded back.

“Thank you, ma’am. Nice to meet you too.” She laughed again and placed a hand on his arm as they were lead into the lounge area by Davey.

“Please, call me Esther. All of David’s friends do.”

“Well then thank you, Esther.” They all sat down on the couch.

“You're welcome, Charlie.”

After a few minutes on the couch, Sarah came out of her room and to the lounge area. Seeing all of them out there, she flopped on the couch next to Crutchie. She scared him by just popping up out of nowhere it seemed. He jumped, and she laughed.

“Heya Crutch, didn't know you were coming over today. Sup Jack.” Crutchie noticed that Sarah seemed way more casual at home. It was almost like seeing a different person. Everyone was different in the comfort of their own homes though, so that was understandable.

“Hey Sarah. Where's Katherine? Doesn't she normally come over Friday?” Davey, who was on the other side of Crutchie, leaned forward to look at her. She shrugged.

“She doesn't come over every Friday. She was busy today. A lot of homework, apparently. What are you guys doing here?” She aimed her question at Jack and Crutchie.

“We’re watching Paranorman I guess, because Davey's lame and says I need to watch it.” Jack flicked Davey's shoulder, which made Davey flick him back. They went back and forth for awhile until Davey apparently flicked him too hard and Jack pouted before sticking his tongue out at him. Both Sarah and Crutchie watched with judging eyes.

“You haven't seen it? I may not have defended it at the park, but it's still a good movie. I'll watch it with you guys. You put it in yet?” Davey shook his head no, so Sarah stood up and put it in for them. He might have been saying no to her watching it with them in general though. They turned out the lights and got ready for the movie as the bits before the selection screen played. Sarah started eating their snacks with them, which annoyed Davey, but she continued to do it anyway. Jack kept talking through the movie, making Crutchie reach over Davey and hit him playfully, trying to get him to stop. He eventually did when the story picked up more and he got into the movie.

“Okay, so it was actually pretty good.” The movie got over and they turned the lights back on. During the movie, Davey and Crutchie somehow sort of cuddled together, moreso just leaning towards the other really. Crutchie's head was on Davey's shoulder and one of his arms was limply dangling around him slightly. Sarah got up and stretched.

“It is good! I forgot how much I liked that movie. Ugh, I love Laika. The story of the witch too? Such a good idea! I also love that they made the jock canonically gay. Reminds me of someone I know.” Crutchie looked at Jack and he laughed.

“I'm not gay. I'm bi, actually, but fair enough.” 

“Maybe he was talking about me, Jack. I'm actually gay, and I count as a jock.” Jack laughed, as did Sarah.

“Yeah, Jack. Maybe I was talking about Davey. He's better than you anyway.” Crutchie tightened his arm that was dangling around him slightly. Davey blushed a little.

“Wow, I can't believe this. I'm leaving!” Jack stomped out of the room before stomping back in. “Crutchie, you're my ride.” Everyone in the room started cracking up. Davey noticed that Crutchie still hadn't let go of him. He was... okay with that. They talked about the movie for a bit, Sarah saying something every once in awhile. She was texting with Katherine, so she wasn't paying full attention.

“Well I could stay talking with you all forever but I actually have to be home tonight. Sorry Crutchie but you are actually my ride.” Jack stood up from the couch and stretched. Crutchie was practically laying on Davey now, and he pouted.

“But I don't want to leave!” Crutchie whined from his spot. He tried giving Jack his best puppy-dog-eyes. 

“Yeah, don't make him leave Jack.” Davey pouted too, and wrapped his arms around Crutchie like he was protecting him. They laughed at each other.

“If you really want to stay, maybe Sarah can take me home?” Jack looked to Sarah, who wasn't paying attention at all.

“No, I should probably actually leave too, even if I don't want to.” Crutchie sat up and stretched before standing up. Davey stood up after him and walked the both of them to the door. Sarah only then looked up from her phone.

“Oh, you're leaving? Bye guys!” She went immediately back to her phone. Davey rolled his eyes. She was always like that when texting Katherine. If Katherine had a lot of homework though, Sarah really shouldn't be distracting her.

Jack and Crutchie said goodbye to Davey and left. Davey shut the door after them. When he got back to the lounge area he grabbed Sarah by the arm and started dragging her to her room. She pulled her arm from his grasp and huffed.

“If you want me to go somewhere don't drag me you heathen.” She looked at him incredulously. He walked behind her and started pushing.

“I need to talk to you and it's important. We need to go to your room.” Sarah had her feet planted into the ground and wasn't moving anywhere. Once Davey told her where he wanted her to go, she started walking and he almost fell face first into the floor. They walked all the way to her room and once inside, Sarah closed the door and motioned for Davey to sit on the bed.

“It must be serious if you felt the need to drag me into my own room. What's up? Is it something about Jack?” Davey crossed his legs and placed his hands on his knees.

“Kind of? I don't know. I don't understand what's happening.”

“I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong Davey.” Davey sighed and rubbed his face with his hands.

“I think I like Crutchie?” He gave Sarah a desperate look. She looked confused.

“You like Crutchie? I mean, I guess that would mean you're over Jack, maybe? But this still isn't good as he's the one dating Jack.” She pursed her lips, but Davey just shook his head.

“No, you don't understand. I like them both. I still very much like Jack but now I like Crutchie too? I don't understand.” Davey looked so distressed. Sarah didn't know what to do. She remembered her conversation with Katherine in the Denny’s bathroom. Katherine had thought that Jack liked both Davey and Crutchie. Now Davey liked Jack and Crutchie. What kind of mess were these boys into?

“You like them both? I've never heard of anything like that before. Well, it's common to like more than one person I guess, but you liked- or like- Jack a lot. Like, wanting to date him liking. Do you feel that for Crutchie too? Like you want to date the both of them?” Davey shrugged. Did he want to date them both? He knew that he definitely wanted to go out with Jack, and has for awhile. He only just realized his crush for Crutchie recently. He definitely didn’t mind the idea. He’d been getting more… physical with Crutchie recently. Hugging, cuddling, that sort of thing. He definitely would be okay with that in a romantic type setting. He slowly nodded.

“Okay. Well, we can look it up? I’m sure there’s a name for that sort of thing. I feel like Kath’s talked about something like that before I could ask her,” Davey furiously shook his head. He didn’t want Katherine to know. Nothing against her, he just didn’t want to. “Okay, so Google it is! Google knows everything after all, right?” Davey just shrugged. After a bit of digging, they came across a pretty decent blog site about polyamory relationships. After reading through about it, Davey and Sarah agreed that polyamorous would be a good label to add to Davey.

“So cool, we have a label for it or whatever but that still doesn't help. Now I just like two of my friends that are in a relationship with the other. I doubt they’d be down to add a third member to the party!” Davey groaned and flopped back on Sarah’s bed.

“I'm sorry Davey. I don't know a way to help. At least you have a label for it though, right? That's helpful, huh?” Davey glared at Sarah, but he sighed.

“Yeah, I guess. I'm going to lay down and mope in my own bed now. Bye Sarah.” Davey stood up and slumped out of the room into his own and flopped onto the bed. Thank God Les was at a friend’s house today, he really didn't want to be bothered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shorter-ish chapter! But!! Things are finally happening! Well, things have been happening, but now things are really getting started! With only a few chapters left! Aahh! I'm excited for things to happen even more! Yes!!


	18. Crutchie has a Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I just woke up and didn't know what to put for the summary so here you go.

After Crutchie dropped Jack off at his house, he drove the short distance to his. He sat in his car for a few minutes after he turned it off and placed his face in his hands. He was having a bit of a crisis. He’d been trying to deny it for a few days. It was nothing, he said. It meant nothing, he’d say. He couldn’t really deny it anymore, it obviously wasn’t working. He let out a sigh into his hands and rubbed his face. He removed his hands from his face but still kept his head turned down.

“I like David Jacobs.”

The thought scared him quite a bit. Saying it aloud, making it real, scared him even more. He couldn’t like Davey. He liked Jack, he was dating Jack. He couldn’t like someone else! That was like, against the rules or something. Right? He didn’t know, he just felt bad about it anyway. He needed some advice, bad. Normally, he’d go to Jack, but he can’t really do that this time. Yeah, it’s totally cool to tell your boyfriend that you like another guy- his best friend- and ask for advice. No, he needed to talk to someone else. After a second, he decided to go with the one person that would probably be the most help. So, with Crutchie still sitting in his car, he called Katherine’s number.

“Crutchie! Is everything okay? You don’t normally call so this must be important. What’s up?” She answered after five rings. She had probably lost her phone in a pile of papers. She was known to procrastinate doing work and then have to do it all last minute. Well, it was less procrastination and more, she did a little bit of work at a time assuming she could finish before she needed to turn them in. She was always like this. Crutchie decided it might be best to not be in his car for this conversation, so he quickly exited his car and ran to the front door.

“Yeah it’s kind of really important and you were the only one I knew to call. Give me a minute let me get to my room, I was still sitting in my car when I called.” Crutchie opened the door and went down the hall as fast as he could. His room felt like a safe place where he could talk about this. He also had room to pace, which is something he often did when talking about something important. It helped him stay calm, or so he believed anyway.

“Okay I’m in my room.”

“Okay… so what’s up? You sort of have to tell me. I can’t read your mind, Crutch.” Crutchie sighed before taking a deep breath. He barely knew what was happening himself, let alone knowing how to explain it. He needed to try though, he needed advice. Bad.

“So I don’t really know what’s wrong? Well, I do, but I don’t understand it? You know I’m dating Jack, and I like him a lot, I do. I’m so happy we’re together. So happy. He’s amazing. But I just- recently we’ve been hanging out with Davey, you know? I was really happy to hang out with Jack and Davey, they seemed like such close-knit friends it felt like I was being accepted. Then we kept hanging out with Davey, and then we got closer. Davey and I have texted until it got late and didn’t even notice. We’ve just been getting closer and closer. Which I guess would be considered great in some sense but not this time because I think I might have developed a crush on Davey? I just, I’m happy with Jack, I am. But now I like Davey? That’s not- it doesn’t feel right and I don’t understand. I-”

“Crutchie!” He was talking very quickly, thankfully Katherine could understand it all. She was used to dealing with Crutchie’s fast speak when he was nervous. She needed him to stop rambling though because he’d never stop otherwise and he’d keep stressing himself out.

“Yeah?”

“Calm down, take a few deep breaths. You think you like Davey? Is that what you’re saying?” Crutchie groaned and flopped back on his bed.

“Yes! I don’t know what to do because-”

“Crutchie. Listen to me. Calm. Down. You’re okay. Tell me, what’s so wrong about you liking Davey?” Crutchie made a weird, confused noise on his end of the phone. What’s wrong? The whole thing! He can’t like Davey while he’s dating Jack!

“What’s wrong? Katherine! I can’t like Davey while I’m dating Jack! That’s, that’s… that’s morally wrong! Or, or something!” Crutchie could hear Katherine sigh on the other end.

“Okay Crutchie, tell me. Do you want to be in a relationship with Jack? Yes or no.”

“Yes, of course!”

“Now tell me. Do you want to be in a relationship with Davey?”

“I don’t know? Maybe?” Crutchie rolled over on his bed and shoved his face into his pillows.

“Do you want to be in a relationship with them both?”

“Didn’t I just answer that?”

“No, this is different. Do you want to be in a relationship with them both?” Crutchie was still confused, but then it dawned on him.

“You mean, at the same time? That’s cheating! What are you talking about?” Katherine let out a deep sigh this time. It took a few seconds before she spoke up again.

“Crutchie, do you know what polyamory is?” He’d heard of it before. Katherine mentioned it a few times. She read a lot of things about it in sophomore year for something, if he remembered correctly.

“I’ve heard you talk about it before but it’s not fresh in my memory. Why?” He sat up in bed, digging in his memory trying to see if he could remember was polyamory was. It wasn’t working.

“It’s sometimes hard to explain, so I’ll give you the basics. It’s when there is a relationship with more than two people. A healthy relationship with more than two people, I should say. Everyone in the relationship knows about all the other people in the relationship and accept it. No cheating is involved. Perfectly healthy. It’s different for every relationship though, the people in the relationships usually talk about it. I don’t know if this is something you’d be interested in, but it’s the first thing that popped into my head and I thought it could be a solution.”

Crutchie thought for a moment. A relationship with both Jack and Davey? Where they were all happy? It honestly sounded great. His face broke out into a smile for a moment, but then his face turned to a frown. For that to ever happen, which was unlikely, Jack would have to be okay with it and also like Davey; which was also unlikely. The most unlikely thing though was for Davey to like either of them back. It would never work.

“It would be a perfect solution if it would work. Jack doesn’t like Davey, and Davey doesn’t like either of us. They’d both have to be okay with that sort of thing too. It would never work out.” Crutchie slumped where he sat on his bed. He didn’t know what to do.

“Crutchie, Jack- well. Um. You never know until you talk to them, right?” Katherine almost told Crutchie that Jack liked Davey. She wasn’t sure though, she only thought he did. Even if he did, she wasn’t sure if Jack even knew himself.

“And risk ruining both my relationship with Jack and friendship with Davey? No. I’ll just have to get over it or something. You probably have stuff to get back to, I won’t hold you for longer. See you on Monday, Kath.” Katherine barely had a chance to say goodbye before Crutchie hung up. All he’d managed to do was upset himself. This was great.

After Crutchie hung up, Katherine sighed. She already knew that Davey liked Jack, and she was pretty sure he liked Davey. She couldn’t tell Crutchie that though. She also didn’t know if Davey liked Crutchie. According to Crutchie they had been getting closer, but that didn’t mean anything for certain. She just wanted all of them to be happy and to help, she just really didn’t know how. As she was setting her phone down she got a text.

_Sarah_  
We may have a problem

_Sarah_  
Well it might be a problem, I’m not sure. It’s a Davey problem.

She sent the second text right after the other. Katherine quickly responded.

_Kath_  
What is it? Is it serious?

Katherine couldn’t be sure. It could’ve been a small thing, but Katherine was a worrier.

_Sarah_  
It’s fine! It’s fine! It’s just… Davey told me he likes Crutchie

Katherine just about started laughing. Seriously? She just heard from Crutchie that he liked Davey, and now she was being told that Davey liked Crutchie. She couldn’t believe this.

_Katherine_  
Coincidentally enough, Crutchie just told me he that he likes Davey

_Sarah_  
You’re kidding! Really? How weird is that? Should we tell them?

Katherine thought for a minute. It probably wouldn’t cause something horrible to happen if they did. She got an idea though, and a mischievous grin grew on her face.

_Katherine_  
What’s the fun in that though? These boys need our help, telling them probably wouldn’t do anything. I have a plan.

_Sarah_  
Hell yes. I’m intrigued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed yet another gay chapter!! Find me on tumblr @bentylershook !


	19. There's a... Party?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah and Katherine's plan is set into motion as Jack plans for a little get together. Crutchie and Davey wonder how either of them will survive.

_Jack_  
Yo Dave, I’m trying to invite everyone all over next weekend. We haven’t all hung out since after our last game. Almost everyone seems to be open for the whole day Saturday you in?

Davey groaned. He’d been laying on his bed moping for a few minutes before his phone went off. He didn’t really want hang out with all the guys next weekend. He honestly just wished he could just never move again and stay in bed forever. He couldn’t very well say no without an excuse though. He threw his phone at the wall without answering the text. It didn’t break, thankfully. He could hear Sarah coming out of her room though, probably to ask what the noise was.

“Davey? What was that, are you okay?” Davey looked up at her from his new moping position of sitting up, hugging his knees to his chest.

“Physically? Sure.” Sarah sighed and shut his bedroom door behind her before coming in and sitting next to him on his bed.

“Okay, what’s wrong now?” She placed a hand on his back.

“Jack decided he’s invited everyone over next weekend on Saturday to hang out because we haven’t done that since our last game. I really don’t want to though. I already don’t even want to get out of bed for school Monday, and it’s still Friday. Not to mention, Crutchie will definitely be invited, and I still haven’t figured everything out yet. But Jack sort of has a way of making me go to things even if I don’t want to.” Sarah already knew about this, actually. It was a part of Katherine’s plan. She was the one who texted Jack saying they should get the whole team together and hang out. He was a little confused as to why Katherine wanted to, but thought it was a cool idea. While he put plans together for that, Katherine and Sarah’s plan started to build.

“Yeah, he texted me about that a few seconds before I heard the noise. He really is inviting everyone. But hey, I’ll be there. If something happens and you need to quietly freak out to someone somewhere, I’m your girl.” Sarah shrugged, and Davey sighed. It was a pretty embarrassing constant occurrence for Davey to freak out when even just being around someone he liked. It was like that when he started liking Jack in the beginning, but he got over it quick enough. Now that he liked Crutchie too though, he was freaking out about that, bringing back the whole freaking out thing from Jack. Sarah and Davey both knew that the two mixing would be a lot.

“Thanks Sarah. That might be helpful. I guess I have to tell Jack I’ll be there.” Davey stood up to grab his phone, and Sarah laughed.

“Was that the noise? Did you throw your phone? Davey, you aren’t supposed to do that.”

“Shut up, I was frustrated.” Sarah continued chuckling while leaving the room and going back to hers.

_Jack_  
Davey? Dude, answer me.

Jack had apparently sent another text when Davey didn’t answer right away.

_Davey_  
Sorry. Yeah, I’m in. You could have told me you invited my sister though.

_Jack_  
Figured she’d tell you anyway. I’ll give you more details as they get planned throughout the week.

_Davey_  
Alright, see you Monday, Jack.

Davey sighed. He was already dreading it. He’d have to deal with it though, he already said he’d go. He had Sarah, he reminded himself. He had her to help him from freaking out. Hopefully, that is. For all he knew she could be attached to Katherine the whole day and be impossible to talk to. He really hoped that wouldn't be the case. Why did he agree to go? This was a bad idea. Maybe he could just text Jack back and say he couldn't go, something with his family would be that weekend. Yeah, that would work right? He'd believe that? No, Sarah was going and there’s no way he would be able to convince to go with the story. He had picked up his phone, but was putting it down again when it went off. He figured it was Jack again, so he checked it. It was Crutchie. Fuck.

_Crutchie_  
Hey! Did you get the text from Jack? You're coming right? He told me you didn't text back right away and then I didn't get another update and wanted to be sure! Wouldn't want to miss you there!

David groaned. He was so nice! How could one person be so nice and cute? At least now he understood why Jack liked him so much. He was an actual ray of sunshine. He was a pillar of happiness. He groaned again. Thinking these things won't help!

_Davey_  
Yeah, I'm coming. I meant to respond but I forgot I guess. I didn't realize until I got another text from him haha. I'd never miss hanging out with you, Crutch!

Davey almost deleted the last bit, but Crutchie had said something similar. Besides, it was friendly. Nothing was meant by it. It was fine. He needed to stop freaking out or he'd surely be doomed by next weekend.

On Crutchie's end, he started smiling really wide after Davey’s text. He knew it meant nothing, but him saying that he'd never miss hanging out with him made him blush and smile like an idiot. God, he was acting like he first was with Jack. He'd need to calm down with it before Monday or it could be bad. Knowing Crutchie though, it’d only get worse and things would be horrible come next Saturday. God, what even made him like Davey? It would be so easy if he just hadn't started liking him. His mind supplied him of many mental images of Davey, and he was gently but sternly reminded that it was inevitable. His smile, the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, the way his eyebrows furrowed when he was confused, his hair that always looked so soft that Crutchie wanted to run his hands through. Everything about him was so great. Crutchie was surprised Jack or someone else hadn't asked him out already. Crutchie rolled over onto his stomach on his bed and flailed his arms around in a bit of a fit. He hadn't realized before but he really liked Davey. He didn't know how he'd survive the next week, or at all for that matter.

Crutchie checked the time and saw that he should probably eat dinner soon. He went out to the kitchen and heated up some soup for himself, not really feeling up to doing much else. He ate quickly and went back to his room ready to just go to sleep early and not deal with anything. He saw that he had a text from Katherine though and checked it.

_Kath_  
Hey, you going to that party thing Jack is planning next weekend?

_Crutchie_  
Party? It's a party?

If it was a party, Crutchie definitely wouldn't survive. He didn't think he could do parties. Jack had said he had only invited the team, but that wasn’t a party really; he knew all of those guys.

_Katherine_  
Sorry, not party. Just, all of us hanging out. He even invited Sarah and I, so really everyone will be there.

_Crutchie_  
Okay. Yeah, I'm going. Of course Davey is too. I'm not going to survive Kath

_Kath_  
Yes you will. You'll be fine Crutchie. Just focus on having fun and you'll be okay.

He didn't believe it, but he didn't want to argue with Katherine. She couldn't understand that Crutchie already felt like he could combust at any moment. He knew he just needed to get over Davey and everything would be fine. He just didn't know how well that would work. Or how fast he could make it work. Probably not fast enough, he guessed. He'd almost certainly be distressed for a long time trying to get over him. Oh God, this wasn't good. Why did Jack have to plan this for next weekend? Why? It's like the universe decided they wanted to screw over Crutchie. Sure, next Saturday was a week away but that’s still not enough time. Well, thanks universe. You're pretty shitty. No, he shouldn't say that. The universe might make it worse on him. Sorry, universe. Crutchie groaned.

“What do I care? The universe can go fuck itself!” He groaned again. What was he doing? He was going crazy, that's what. Davey was making him go crazy. God, this was a trainwreck. The whole thing. He rolled over in his bed so he was on his back. He took a few deep breaths and shut his eyes. He needed to calm down. When he opened his eyes next it was dark outside and he'd been put under his covers. He'd fallen asleep, of course he did. Now it was two o’clock in the morning according to his phone. His mom must have covered him up when she came in to check on him before heading to her room, like she did every night. Crutchie decided to just roll over and go back to sleep. He couldn’t ruin his sleep schedule, and he was still tired, so it was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter!! The next one is very long and the last one!! I can't believe this fic is almost over! Aahh!!!!! Find me on tumblr @bentylershook !!


	20. Things Happen in Mysterious Ways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the 'party!' The week leading up to it was hell for many people, but the actual day seems to maybe be a little worse?

The week leading up to the dreaded Saturday was hell, for more than just Davey and Crutchie. Sure, they definitely had the worst of it, but it wasn’t great for the others around them either. Within the first two days of the next week, the whole team knew about the situation and the plan for the weekend thanks to Sarah and Katherine. That explained Crutchie and Davey’s odd behavior too. Crutchie didn’t even come over to their lunch table once, and he would always try his best to not look at Davey if he was a part of a group he was talking to. Davey stopped getting rides from Crutchie, going back to riding with Race and the other guys. Whenever Jack would suggest for the three of them to do something after school, they would both decline. Jack wasn’t sure what was happening, and he was confused and upset. He thought they had been getting along great, but now they were acting like they barely could stand each other. Jack just hoped it would be okay when Saturday came around.

Katherine and Sarah also had to deal with a lot though. Davey was constantly complaining to Sarah, and it was even worse than it was when it was just Jack. Now it was Jack and Crutchie and it was hell. She knew that if they could hold it together until the weekend everything would be fine as long as everything went according to plan. Katherine was dealing with the same thing, only with Crutchie instead. They couldn’t wait for the weekend to come, but started to dread it too.

Even if Crutchie and Davey definitely had it the worst of anyone throughout the week, Davey had it even worse than Crutchie. His anxiety had been kicking into overdrive over this stupid thing and he couldn’t control it. It wasn’t even getting better as the week went on, it got _worse_. Little freakouts earlier in the week could be solved by staying quiet and taking deep breaths, but they soon turned to what Davey would definitely consider anxiety attacks, and he started going to one of the school bathrooms to calm himself down without being seen. He was definitely not ready for the weekend. Seeing as how his week went, he could very possibly have a breakdown at Jack’s house and he really didn’t need that.

Davey woke up at ten on Saturday morning, planning to shower and get dressed and leave. Jack wanted people to start arriving at noon, so Davey figured two hours was a good amount of time to give himself. He didn’t want to have too much extra time to think about anything and dread it even more. Luck was not on his side that morning it seemed, because when he woke up Sarah was already in the shower, and her showers always took forever. She blasted music and wouldn’t get out for at least an hour. It was horrible. He could only hope that she had gotten in an hour ago and was close to being done. He didn’t think that was possible though, because he knew this whole day was going to be horrible because he apparently did something so horrible earlier in his life that he deserved to be screwed over by the universe on this very day. He decided his best option would be to knock on the door and check anyway. He quickly exited his room and walked down the hall to the bathroom. He knocked, but there was no answer. He knocked again, louder this time, still no answer. She probably couldn’t hear over her music. He knocked even louder, this time getting a response.

“What?” Sarah had to yell really loud to be heard over her music. Davey was honestly surprised she wasn’t deaf by now, she blasted music constantly. If it wasn’t through speakers in the shower it was through her headphones, loud enough that Davey could hear it. It was worrying, to say the least. She’d be deaf before she was forty for sure.

“I need to shower too, how much longer will you be in there?” Davey had to shout too, and even then he wasn’t sure Sarah had heard. Apparently she did though, because she responded quickly after.

“I got in here maybe ten minutes ago? I’ll try to go quicker for you, okay?” That would sound good from any other person, but when Sarah said she’d shower quicker, that just meant she’d still take close to another half hour or more. Davey groaned, but he shouted back to her to please hurry up before going back to his room. He could occupy himself for at least a few minutes picking out an outfit, he guessed. After a few seconds he got bored. Literally anything he owned was fine, he was just hanging out with the team, Crutchie, Katherine, and Sarah. There was no point in really ‘picking an outfit.’ He just chose a pair of jeans and one of his many space shirts. This one happened to be dark blue with white constellations all over it. He then went and sat on his bed, trying to do anything but think. If he started thinking he would over think and put himself into a frenzy. He didn’t need that. He grabbed the book he’d been reading recently, Howl’s Moving Castle. It was his second time reading through it. Jack had told him about it actually. He said he loved the movie, so Davey had looked it up. He saw that it was a book and decided to read it first. He ended up really liking the book. Then he and Jack watched the movie together and Davey got a little upset because of how different it was to the book. He had to agree though, on it’s own it was a good movie. He made Jack promise to read the book though. He still hadn’t. Davey remembered that night fondly, him and Jack hanging out, watching movies and just having a good time. After a few pages Davey realized he was not taking in anything he was reading, too busy thinking about Jack. He groaned and closed the book. He laid back on his bed and closed his eyes. The book was supposed to distract him from thinking about Jack and Crutchie, but it just reminded him of Jack.

Davey opened his eyes to his sister standing over him, hair dripping onto his face. He wiped the droplets away and sat up. He didn’t remember hearing Sarah’s music or the water turning off. He also didn’t remember Sarah entering the room.

“You fell back asleep, idiot. I’m out of the shower. Hurry up and take yours and get ready. When is Race picking you up again?” Davey shook his head, trying to wake him up a bit. He grabbed his phone and saw he did indeed fall back to sleep. He cleared his throat before looking up at Sarah.

“Not until eleven forty-five. I still have an hour, and I don’t take as long of showers as you do, so calm down. I’ll be in and out before half an hour.” Davey grabbed his clothes and quickly went to the bathroom to shower. He only occasionally listened to music in the shower. This time was not one of those times. He took a shower without any music, quietly singing to himself instead. He liked that better anyway. It was quiet and calming with the water gently flowing over him. He started humming a song he didn’t quite know. He remembered it was a song from some musical Crutchie had told him to listen to. He actually quite liked it, and Crutchie said they should watch the whole musical together sometime. Davey thought that would be cool. He did really like Rent when he made him watch it, even if it made him cry. That just proved that the music was good, he thought. Crutchie said he had a lot of ‘bootlegs’ on his laptop. He said it was an old laptop and didn’t work right sometimes, but he’d make it work. Davey thought it’d be nice, curled up next to Crutchie on his couch or on his bed, covered in blankets. They’d watch musicals together and Crutchie would sing along while Davey payed close attention. They’d laugh at the funny ones, they’d cry at the sad ones. They’d fall asleep tangled up together in the middle of watching one.

Davey stopped. He thought it was bad this morning thinking about a memory with Jack, but now he was imagining something with Crutchie. Something that hadn’t even happened. He’s done it with Jack before too, but that stopped after a while when they started hanging out regularly. He had it bad. He’d have to stay almost hip to hip with Sarah all day if he was going to make it through it. He knew he couldn’t though, so he was royally screwed. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been in the shower at that point so he finished quickly and got out. He went on his phone for the remaining time before Race came to pick him up.

* * *

Crutchie woke up that morning with a text from Jack. He wanted Crutchie to come over about an hour earlier than the rest so they could spend some time alone before everyone came barging in. Crutchie quickly agreed, because it was really cute that Jack wanted alone time with him and also because how could he say no to spending more time with Jack? Since he didn’t have that much time anymore, needing to be there an hour earlier than expected, he took the quickest shower he’s ever taken, got dressed, and was out the door pretty quickly. Sure, Jack’s house was close but Crutchie’s fastest shower still wasn’t all that fast. Still, he did get there sooner than asked. He went up and knocked on the door anyway though, which Jack answered and pulled him into a hug, picking him up off the ground. Crutchie’s crutch fell to the floor and he yelped in surprise.

“How is my amazing boyfriend doing today?” Jack set Crutchie back down and grabbed his crutch for him and then they actually made their way inside.

“I don’t know, I woke up less than an hour ago. Ask me again in a few hours.” Jack laughed and placed a quick kiss on Crutchie’s lips before they went down to Jack’s room. Some things were moved around, making it look more roomy. Probably because he’d have a good amount of people in there for a good amount of time, didn’t want it to start to feel crowded. Crutchie walked all the way to Jack’s bed and flopped down. He curled himself into a ball and closed his eyes.

“Wake me up when everyone gets here.” Jack jumped onto the bed next to Crutchie, causing him to bounce up a bit.

“It’s not that early, Crutch! You stay up late last night or something?” Crutchie uncurled himself and lay flat on his back instead. He actually had stayed up late last night, and had been for the past week. He didn’t know why he was getting less sleep, but he was. He was pretty cranky all week because of it too. He didn’t want Jack to worry though.

“No. Doesn’t mean I can’t be tired though.” He sat up now, and he scooted over so he could put his head on Jack’s shoulder. He let his eyes droop again, and Jack wrapped an arm around him. He wouldn’t fall asleep, he wasn’t actually that tired, but resting his eyes was still nice. Eventually Crutchie started humming a song from Rent. He had listened to the soundtrack again recently so the songs were fresh in his mind. Jack, having recognized it, hummed along with him. He wouldn’t admit it, but he had listened to the Rent soundtrack a few times after watching it with Crutchie and Davey. Crutchie looked up at him, so happy that he was actually humming a song from a musical with him. Crutchie started singing the actual lyrics now, he was singing the Angel parts and Jack started singing the Collins parts. After they were done with that one they started singing La Vie Boheme, because you can’t sing Rent songs without singing La Vie Boheme. Part way through the song, both of them dancing around while singing, Medda came downstairs.

“Is this Rent I’m hearing? Jack Kelly, when did you get into musicals and why was I not informed?” They stopped their singing and Crutchie giggled at Jack’s face. He looked almost embarrassed.

“Sorry Aunt Medda! Crutchie forced Dave and me to watch it not too long ago.” Medda turned to face Crutchie now, who was smiling.

“Crutchie! You didn’t tell me you liked musical theatre.” She raised her eyebrows at him and he chuckled again.

“Well I very much do like musical theatre.”

“Jack, you should bring him down to my theatre sometime, I’m sure he’d love it. Well anyway, I’m heading out now Jack. I’ll be home about seven, but your friends can still stay as long as they like.” With that, she went back upstairs. Soon, they both heard the front door open and close.

“Great, now she’ll never leave me alone about theatre.” Jack sat down on his bed, but he didn’t actually look upset. He was smiling at Crutchie. Crutchie went back over to the bed and they sat the way they had before, with Crutchie’s head on Jack’s shoulder.

“We have about... what? Another half hour before people should be coming? What do you want to do?” Crutchie sat up and looked at Jack. Jack just smiled and leaned in and kissed Crutchie. It was sweet and gentle, the best kind of kisses in Crutchie’s opinion. Jack pulled away after a minute.

“I mean, we could just do that for thirty minutes.” Crutchie chuckled and rolled his eyes, but he still leaned in for another kiss.

“I could be okay with that.”

Crutchie had almost fully migrated into sitting in Jack’s lap when there was a knock on the door. Jack groaned, but he needed to let people in so Crutchie moved and they both went to the door. Jack was expecting the whole group coming from Race’s van, but it was actually Katherine and Sarah. Jack let them in and led them to the basement.

“I’m surprised you didn’t just go with David in Race’s van Sarah. That would’ve been easier, right?” Sarah and Katherine both burst out laughing, leaving Crutchie and Jack confused.

“Why would I ride in a van full of boys, including my brother, when I could ride in a nice car with my girlfriend? It’s the same reason you ride with Crutchie to and from school now.” Jack nodded his head, that made sense. Another knock was heard soon after Katherine and Sarah arrived but the door was opened before Jack could even reach the stairs.

“Here we come!” Race’s voice was heard from the front door.

“Basement!” Jack called back at them and then a lot of footsteps were heard coming down the stairs. First was Race, then Spot, Romeo, Specs, Albert, Mush, Blink, and then finally Davey. He put on a beanie last minute before hopping into Race’s van because his hair wasn’t cooperating. Crutchie thought he looked really good in a beanie. No, no he didn’t. He looked perfectly normal in a beanie just like every other time he saw him. This was going to be difficult.

Crutchie motioned for Davey to join Jack and him sitting on the bed. He did, but he wished he hadn’t. He didn’t want to go into freak-out mode over something so stupid, but he couldn’t really calm himself down when his problems were staring him in the face with gorgeous eyes and beautiful smiles. Ugh, this was bad. He really wished he’d drove himself here so he could just leave, but sadly he rode with Race and the rest of the team and was stuck. Stranded. He took a few deep breaths. He was fine. He tuned back into the conversation Jack, Crutchie, Spot, and Race were having.

“You almost got kicked out of a Hell-Mart? What for?” Spot was looking at Jack incredulously. Him and Crutchie laughed.

“Nothing! We were just being a little loud!”

“You were sliding down the isles on your stomach. Then when some kids, maybe ten or twelve, saw you they started doing it to. You almost ran into their mom!” Jack bit his lips and tried stifling his laugh but it didn’t work and he started cracking up.

“Come on, it was funny! Right, Dave?” Davey gave Jack a stern look.

“We would’ve been kicked out if it wasn’t for our good pal Davey convincing the guy to let us just pay for our stuff and leave.”Crutchie wrapped an arm around Davey. He looked around for Sarah, hoping some sort of sibling mind reading powers would tell her to get him out of this situation. He couldn’t see her. It was a small basement, so he couldn’t see why. Maybe she was in the bathroom. He couldn’t see Katherine either though. That was strange.

“Yeah! Our pal Davey, the Walking Mouth.” Davey cringed at his stupid nickname, and then cringed a little more when Jack also put an arm around Davey. Now both Crutchie’s and Jack’s arms were around him and he couldn’t deal.

“Hey, do you guys know where Sarah is? I need to talk to her for a minute.” Jack looked around the room like Davey had before but also couldn’t see her.

“She could be upstairs. Bathroom maybe.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll check there. I have to use the bathroom anyway.” Davey got up after Jack and Crutchie removed their arms and went upstairs towards the bathroom. Nobody was in there. He looked around upstairs like in the lounge room and the kitchen. He wouldn’t be surprised if she decided she didn’t like it around all the boys and came up for a break. Katherine wasn’t downstairs either, so he figured they’d both just be upstairs. When they weren’t, he started to panic. Sarah told him she’d be here the whole time. She’d help him calm down if he started freaking out. Now she wasn’t anywhere and he was beginning to freak out. Less about the whole Crutchie and Jack thing and more about the fact that he didn’t have Sarah there reminding him it was okay. He tried breathing and calming himself down and it helped a little but he could feel that it would get worse, so he went into the bathroom and shut the door. After a minute or two in the bathroom, he calmed down. It wasn’t that bad. He didn’t want to leave just yet though. Once he left he’d have to go back downstairs with Jack and Crutchie and no Sarah to help. He was working himself up again. This was so stupid, why was he so worked up over this. He never got this worked up about Jack. Sure he’d have small little anxiety attacks in his room sometimes, which he still wasn’t proud of, but it was never like this. Maybe it was both Crutchie and him combined that was causing this. Why couldn’t he have just not started liking Crutchie? Or better yet, Jack. Why did he ever have to like Jack? What good did it do to him? This was only making him more upset, God, he needed to stop.

It had been a few minutes since Davey left. Crutchie wasn’t sure what he needed to tell Sarah, but it couldn’t have been much because she came back down only about a minute after he went up. He remembered him saying he had to use the bathroom, but he didn’t think he’d be up there that long. He was a little worried. He had no reason to be, it’s not like anything bad could happen, but he was still worried. There was a pretty decent amount of people in a kind of small space, so he could be freaking out, having a panic attack upstairs. Crutchie decided to check on him. If he was having a panic attack he shouldn’t deal with it alone.

“Hey, Davey’s been gone for a little while. I’m gonna check on him, okay?” Jack gave him a weird look, but when he saw Crutchie’s worried expression, he didn’t question it and just nodded. They’d been acting weird the whole week so Jack couldn’t very well question it either. As Crutchie was climbing the stairs Romeo started shouting something about a game they were going to play. He chuckled as he made his way to the top of the stairs. He couldn’t see Davey at first glance, but there were walls in the way so he looked around. He wasn’t in the lounging area or the kitchen. He decided to check the bathroom. When he got close to it he could hear what he assumed to be Davey’s shaky breaths. He knocked gently on the door, not wanting to scare him.

“Davey? It’s me Crutchie. Are you okay in there?” He knew he wasn’t but asking was just what humans did.

“I’m fine.” Davey knew it wasn’t convincing, but he had to at least try.

“I can tell that you aren’t Davey. Can I come in?”

“I’d prefer you didn’t.”

“I want to help Davey. Please let me in?” He didn’t get a response, so Crutchie figured he’d just stopped talking altogether. Crutchie sighed.

“Fine, you can come in.” Crutchie smiled a little and opened the door.

He saw Davey sitting on the lid of the toilet with his knees being hugged to his chest again. The beanie he had been wearing was no longer on his head and his hair looked messy, like he had been running his hands through it maybe. Crutchie went over and started rubbing his back and combing his fingers through his hair like he had before. He wanted to help him calm down a little first before he tried talking to him. Davey stiffened though, and shook his head a little. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the contact, but he didn’t trust himself not to freak out more with him so close. Crutchie took his hands away and just kneeled in front of him instead. If Davey didn’t want to be touched, that was fine. He’d heard of many people not wanting to be touched sometimes when having an attack. He would respect that, even if all he wanted to do was run his fingers through his hair some more.

“Davey, I need you take deep breaths. You’re okay, I promise. Everything’s okay. Can you tell me what’s wrong?” Davey shook his head no. He couldn’t physically tell him, no, not yet. He had a different reason for not being able to tell him though, of course.

“Okay then, that’s fine. Just keep taking deep breaths. Know that I’m here, and everything is okay. You’re okay. Everything will be okay. Can you talk to me now?” Davey’s breathing calmed down a bit, and he nodded his head.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” He shook his head.

“Davey, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong. Can you please tell me what’s wrong?”

“No.”

“Can I try to comfort you again? Are you calm enough? I don’t want to upset you, I just want you to know that I’m here and you’re safe.” Davey thought for a moment. He really didn’t want Crutchie running his hands through his hair. Well actually, he did. That was the problem. He knew it would help him calm down more though. He eventually nodded. Crutchie moved to the side of him again and rubbed his back and ran his fingers through his hair like before.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong now? I want to help Davey, I really do. I hate seeing you so upset.”

“I can’t.” Crutchie sighed.

“You can. I won’t make fun of you, I won’t judge you, it won’t ruin our friendship. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Davey, nothing you say can make me not want to be your friend anymore, okay? You’re too great, I couldn’t ever want to lose you.” Tears started welling up in Davey’s eyes. Crutchie was just so nice, and cute, and in Davey’s current emotional state his words were a bit much and he got even more emotional. Crutchie hugged him and a few silent tears began to fall, and then a steady stream started. Why was he so easily tipped over the edge? He wasn’t even really panicking now, just crying. Crutchie held him tighter.

“Davey, what’s wrong, come on tell me. Please, Davey. I want to help.” Crutchie felt like he himself was going to cry. He didn’t want Davey to cry. Davey didn’t even really know why he was crying. He knew there wasn’t really a way out of this now. He’d need to tell Crutchie what was up. Or make up a lie. He couldn’t tell Crutchie. Before he knew it though, the truth came tumbling from his mouth.

“I don’t want you to hate me Crutchie, but I like Jack. Have for a while. Then you came along and at first I was jealous as I have been with everyone Jack’s dated but then we hung out more and I realized that I liked you too? I guess? I like you both and I’ve been freaking out because I don’t know what to do, there’s nothing I can do. I didn’t want to say anything and I wasn’t going to because you and Jack are happy. Now you probably hate me because liking two of my closest friends is weird and I’ve screwed everything up.” Most of his words were a little hard to understand because he was still crying a bit, he was speaking very quickly, and he was a little muffled by Crutchie’s shirt. Crutchie froze for a moment and Davey pushed him away gently.

“I’m sorry. This was horrible. I never should have come today. I messed everything up. I should just walk home.” Davey actually stood up, intending to leave and walk home, but Crutchie stopped him. He had a small smile on his face.

“Davey. It’s okay, it’s okay! You didn’t ruin anything Davey! I promise.”

“What do you mean I didn’t ruin anything? Of course I did, you don’t have to try to make me feel better.” He tried getting up again but Crutchie stopped him once more.

“You didn’t ruin anything because, well, I like you too. I didn’t want to admit it, for the same reason as you. I didn’t want to ruin anything.” Davey looked up at Crutchie with wide eyes.

“Wait, you mean, you like me too?”

“Yes.” Davey smiled super big, but it fell quickly.

“What’s your thoughts on all of that though? Like, what can you- we- do about it? I’ve heard about polyamory but I don’t know your thoughts on it and-”

“Polyamory is what I was thinking too, if you’re okay with that.” Davey nodded and smiled, but his smile fell into a frown once more.

“That’s cool and all, but Jack’s a part of this too, and neither of us know where he stands here.” Crutchie’s smile fell too. He looked like he was thinking.

“I’m gonna go grab Jack then. We can talk to him about this, right? Shouldn’t be hard?” Davey shrugged. He was honestly a little terrified. He didn’t want to ruin his friendship with him and his relationship with Crutchie with this. Crutchie took his shrug as an okay though and went to grab Jack. He made his way downstairs and all the way to Jack.

“Jack, I need to talk to you. Upstairs.” Jack was surprised by Crutchie’s serious tone, but he followed him up the stairs anyway. He hoped it wasn’t something horrible, Medda would kill him if something went wrong with all the guys here. Crutchie led him to the bathroom and they went inside together. Davey was still inside, kind of pacing in the small area.

“Why are we all in the bathroom? What’s going on?” Jack looked very confused, and he did have the right to be. He was sort of just brought into the bathroom to talk with his boyfriend and best friend with no context as to what was happening. Crutchie looked at Davey, and Davey nodded. Crutchie took that as a sign to tell him to go first. He took a deep breath. He really hoped this wouldn’t blow up in his face.

“Jack, I like you a lot, you know that. No, that sounds like a breakup, I’m not breaking up with you. God, this is hard to explain. Okay, so. I like Davey, but I also like you. I like the both of you.” Jack looked confused and then he opened his mouth like he was going to talk, but Davey stepped up.

“I, uh. I also like you, and I like Crutchie. I like the both of you.” They looked at each other, then back at Jack nervously. His reaction could be anything. He looked maybe a little more confused and so Crutchie spoke up again.

“I guess what we want to say is… we both want a relationship with you, and each other. It would be a polyamorous relationship. I’d love to have Davey be a part of this relationship. Our relationship. What are your thoughts?” Crutchie looked like he would pop out of his skin any moment he looked so anxious. Jack’s confused look went away, and he smiled, Crutchie smiled too, taking this as a good sign. Davey was afraid he’d start laughing.

“You guys. You two are my two favorite people in the world, aside from Aunt Medda, and it would be an honor to be in a relationship with both of you. That sounds... amazing.” Crutchie smiled wider, and Davey finally cracked a smile too.

“Does that mean you’re okay with this? With us? All of us? Together?”

“Does that mean you like me too?” Crutchie giggled at Davey’s question. Jack just smiled wider.

“Yes Davey, I have for a while, I just figured you didn’t like me back. And yes, of course Crutchie. You both mean so much to me.” Davey started laughing, which caused Crutchie to laugh, which caused Jack to laugh.

“Sorry. It’s just that me not liking Jack was laughable.” That caused them all to start laughing again. When the laughter died down, they all just stood looking at each other. Davey looked at Crutchie, and Crutchie looked at Davey. Jack, who he guessed was now officially dating both of these nerds, was going vomit if they didn’t stop acting cute and would just kiss already.

“Can I kiss you?” Neither was paying attention to him, but Jack rolled his eyes. Crutchie let out a little laugh, but blushed and nodded. Davey leaned in, and Crutchie met him halfway. They both sighed into the kiss. It just felt so right. Jack’s heart swelled a little. They really did mean so much to him. They pulled apart after a second, smiling wider than before. Jack looked to Davey, and rolled his eyes before asking too.

“May I?”

“Please.”

Jack laughed as he moved the short distance between them and kissed him. He’d wanted to do that for a while, he just ignored it because he didn’t think Davey reciprocated his feelings. It felt so good to finally be able to. This kiss felt right too, and Davey was so happy he could have both Jack and Crutchie to kiss because it all just felt so right and he was so happy. They pulled apart smiling wide too. Crutchie reached up and placed a quick kiss to Jack’s lips. Jack laughed.

“Hey, even if I’ve been able to do that the past few weeks, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to kiss him now.”

“I wouldn’t blame you.” Crutchie hits Davey’s arm and then they all leave the bathroom. Crutchie and Davey couldn’t believe a whole week of feeling miserable could have been easily avoided if they’d just talked to the other. After they reached the bottom of the stairs, they grabbed each other’s hands. They weren’t trying to hide it, but they did try to nonchalantly walk to Jack’s bed without anyone noticing them holding hands. They were all in the middle of a game of Never Have I Ever so they figured they could do it. They got to the bed and were about to sit down when Romeo starting whooping.

“Aye look over there! The lovebirds finally got their shit together!” Everyone turned to look at Jack, Crutchie, and Davey, and they began whooping and hollering too. They all started blushing. Davey noticed Katherine and Sarah, who were in the circle with the guys, look at each other. He was confused, they hadn’t seemed to be anywhere before. It was suspicious.

“Looks like you three didn’t even need our help.” Sarah smirked at the three of them. Jack furrowed his eyebrows.

“Um, pardon?”

“Well let’s see, where do I start. Okay so I was at Sarah and Davey’s house the day you and Davey were meant to hang out and he got all butthurt. He came in to talk to Sarah, and since I was there he talked to me too. He told us about him liking Jack and all that. We told him he needed to stop being a baby, essentially,” the group laughed, but Davey huffed, “then after a little while Davey goes to Sarah about how he also likes Crutchie. Sarah tells me this, we tell each other everything anyway and I already knew about him liking Jack as well so why not give me an update? This prompted me to tell her that Crutchie had just called me with a very similar dilemma, only he was talking about how he liked Davey. From there, we hatched a plan.” The three boys were looking at them with wide eyes. Crutchie was sort of in awe that it worked out like that. Davey felt a little betrayed that Sarah told Katherine, but he was okay with it considering the outcome. Jack was a little skeptical though.

“How’d you know I’d work out in the mix? I didn’t tell either of you anything.” Katherine and Sarah shared a look, and Katherine looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Jack, your heart eyes are very easy to spot, and when they were were aimed at both Davey and Crutchie within the same five minutes, it wasn’t hard to tell where you stood in this.” The group laughed, but Jack pouted. Was he really that easy to figure out? Davey and Crutchie each kissed his opposite cheeks and he smiled. Most of the guys faked vomiting noises.

“Hey, at least we aren’t Spot and Race!” The group all generally agreed. Even Spot and Race themselves.

“I mean, we could be. If we wanted to.” Crutchie smirked at the two of them. They all laughed while everyone else in the room practically screamed about how much they did not want that. Crutchie raised his eyebrows and moved over to sit in Davey’s lap and started kissing him. Everyone was yelling at them to please stop.

“Okay.”

So Crutchie switched to Jack’s lap and started kissing him instead. The group yelled some more, and Crutchie and Jack split because they were laughing. Crutchie shifted so that he could lay over both of their laps now instead. Everyone decided to restart their game of Never Have I Ever, this time with Jack, Crutchie, and Davey. It was a lot of fun. A lot of people were specifically targeting others.

“Never have I ever been kicked out of a Denny’s.”

“Really?”

“It was Jack’s fault!”

“This is bullshit.”

“Never have I ever been a lesbian.”

“Okay wow, you’re just a dick, Race.”

“Ha! I’m bi, fucker!”

“Never have I ever been bi.”

“Spot, you ass that takes a point from me too!”

“I know.”

“Never have I ever had two boyfriends at once.” 

Jack, Crutchie, and Davey all glared at Romeo, who just smiled innocently.

“We just got together and you throw that bullshit at us. Romeo is blocked.”

“You can’t block someone in real life, Jack.”

“Blocked!”

It was so fun hanging out with everyone. They played Never Have I Ever for a little while longer. It was always Katherine or Crutchie winning. Katherine more often than Crutchie, but he won a good amount of times too. He was still a little too new to the group for everyone to know how to get him out. The group had already known Sarah enough through Davey so she wasn’t too hard to get out. Katherine was the most difficult though because the only two people who really knew stuff about her were Crutchie and Sarah, and they were busy trying to get others out most of the time. After a while of that, they switched to Truth or Dare, which was fun for a while too.

After what felt like only a few hours, Medda came down and told everyone it was approaching ten and people should start getting ready to head home. Katherine and Sarah booked it as fast as they could to leave, Katherine’s curfew was exactly ten and if she wasn’t home by then she’d be grounded for as many months as however many minutes she was late. Her dad was a dick like that. Sarah didn’t have much of a curfew, but her parents did like her home before it got too late. Race told the other boys they needed to leave too. Race didn’t have a curfew, but most of the guys riding with him did unfortunately.

“Aunt Medda, can Davey and Crutchie stay for the night?” Medda gave Jack a knowing look and nodded. All three cheered. Davey and Crutchie both grabbed out their phones, presumably to ask if it was alright with their parents. Soon everyone was gone, and it was just Jack, Crutchie, and Davey. Without everyone there and without the energy circling the room, Crutchie realized just how tired he was and yawned. Jack chuckled.

“Looks like it’s bedtime for Crutchie!” Crutchie scowled at him.

“I’m not a child!”

“Sure you aren’t.” Jack went over and went through his drawers. He pulled out a shirt and shorts for Crutchie, a shirt and sweatpants for himself, and a shirt and sweatpants for Davey as well. He tossed them all the clothes. Crutchie still went to the bathroom to change, but Jack and Davey had been changing in front of each other for forever at that point so they didn’t care too much. When Crutchie came back from the bathroom they all got into bed and cuddled up together. It wasn’t that small of a bed, they could all reasonably fit on it, but it was more fun to cuddle.

Crutchie fell asleep that night between his two amazing boyfriends with a huge smile on his face. Crutchie decided something right then before falling asleep. Crutchie definitely liked baseball now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SAD IT'S OVER!!!!!! I loved writing this fic so much, thank you to anyone who reads it. I'm definitely not done writing stuff, and I already have other stuff written and posted if anyone wants to check out other things I've done I guess! I also will gratefully accept any requests or prompts on my tumblr @bentylershook ! Thanks so much for reading this, and leaving such nice comments, they always made my day. Thank you so much!! I hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I did. Now I'm gonna go be emotional because this fic was my baby.


End file.
